Also addicted to your phone?

With this app, you get your life back

I'm going to be blunt right away, let's get that misery out of the way. I can check my phone between ten and fifteen times an hour. And that's NOT normal, I know.

In fact, over the past few weeks, I've been looking into how serious my situation is and I can say: it's bad. Not normal even. The absolute low point? 8 hours and 7 minutes in one day. That's more than a full workday on my phone, yes, I'm ashamed to death. What is wrong with me, actually? And I always complain that I have no time. Well, this explains a lot.

Fortunately, I'm not the only one with phone issues. Look around you and you'll see dozens of addicts. In the train, on the terrace, even during meals. We can't even take a number two without bringing that phone to the bathroom. Sounds pretty sad. And like a big problem. According to scientists, the similarities between a phone addiction and drug addiction are significant. As soon as you're alone for a moment, you reach for that thing and we become restless and impatient if we haven't been able to look at it for a while. Or worse: if you're somewhere where you can't charge your phone and you still have half a day to go. THE HORROR. Moreover, many of us deny the problem. Addicted? No way, just a bit of instagramming  here and there is part of this time, right? That's true. But feeling your phone ‘burning’ next to you all day, being less able to concentrate on work, getting eye strain, and becoming insecure due to social media are the dark sides of the addiction.

“PEOPLE, THAT'S NOT NORMAL?”

How did I find out that I, uh, have quite a problem? Through the app Moment. Created by American Kevin Holesh and downright quite confronting. Please download it, because I'm sure you'll be just as shocked as I was. Research shows that we underestimate the time we spend on our phones by half. But there's no escaping that now. Moment literally tracks how many minutes you spend on your phone each day, how often you pick it up, and how long you hold it each time. I just discovered it a week ago and already want to crawl under a blanket from despair. Monday: 5 hours and 20 minutes. Tuesday: 6 hours and 13 minutes. Wednesday: 4 hours and 19 minutes. This was my last week, yes. Oh, and then there's that gem of 8 hours and 6 minutes. PEOPLE, THAT'S NOT NORMAL? And yes, I also answer quite a few emails on my phone and am online a lot for my work, but this is just ridiculous.

So, do you also want to learn to deal healthily with your screen? Download that app (can here) and say welcome to your new life.