We spend 180 minutes a day on our smartphone and this is what it does to you

Let's be honest: how many times have you clicked that miserable ‘home button’ today?

How many photos have you scrolled through on your Insta feed? How many likes have you given out? Have you checked the news on Facebook yet? No matter how quietly you try to hide in a corner, you've definitely done this. But there's no need to be ashamed. As Dutch people, we spend a whopping 180 minutes a day on our smartphones. The days when we would chat with the neighbor are long gone: we Skype them instead. Or we send a Snapchat with a puppy filter.

Those numbers aren't that crazy, because the Netherlands ranks #1 among smartphone countries. No less than 93 percent of the Dutch have one. It turns out we mainly use WhatsApp. And Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are also very popular. Even 38 percent of those over 80 would be found on WhatsApp – handy for keeping in touch with all those trendy grandchildren. In recent years, shopping via phone has become more fashionable. At first, we might not have dared to do it, but now we order one dress after another through the Zara app. Over fifty percent shop just on their mobile.

But what does it do to us, this endless staring at that thing in our hands? According to researchers from Radboud University, young people who had to turn off their phones for a week found life without a phone to be ‘more real’, ‘more beautiful’, and ‘more intense’. Do you know those moments when you're somewhere having a great time and are so busy with your friends or family, that you haven't been ‘online’ for half a day? And that feels wonderfully ‘free’? As if you're really ‘living’ again or something. That feeling. Being in that happy flow. We need more of that for our sense of happiness: you don't need to be a psychologist to agree with that. In other words: we are always reachable, but it doesn't do much for your mood. It turns out that people who use their phones for more than ten hours a day actually experience more stress than others. In short, get rid of that thing. Or at least pay attention to those three hours a day.

Those average 21 hours a week that you have left if you don't endlessly scroll on social media, here's what you could do with it:

• Find an extra job, then you'll have that Chanel bag on your arm in no time.
• Visit your grandparents. One day it won't be possible anymore.
• Visit your parents. Have a spontaneous bite to eat, just like old times.
• Clean out your closet or tidy up your house. Because having less clutter actually makes you happier.
• Sneak in an afternoon nap. Your brain will thank you.
• Read a newspaper, a book, a magazine; it will make you smarter.
• Do something for someone else: that also makes you a happier person. Volunteering provides a sense of fulfillment that you can hardly find elsewhere.

There. That's our wise lesson again. And shame on you if you're reading this on your mobile.