[Draft]
Each day how often do you end up scrolling through an app feed or a news site looking for nothing in particular but nonetheless stimulated with the prospect of seeing something new? Not only is this something we happen to do daily but often not even doing so deliberately, i.e. with contemplation prior to action.
Distractions are par for the course but in our digital age they have reached critical mass. I would guess under 20% of people would admit to being addicted to mobile apps when in reality over 80%. The problem is this is uncharted territory. People are unaware of what ‘normal usage’ constitutes or even where they are in reference to the median. If the average person unlocked and used their phone 40 times a day where would you stand? I surmise I would easily double this and most likely hit triple digit unlocks.
In the next half decade recommended usage rates will likely be readily available and known by most. Just like we have recommended daily water intake and caloric guides, so to will we have recommended mobile usage rates. And unlike diets or fitness this data will be automatically logged which is often the biggest factor preventing a change in habits – a lack of knowledge (data) readily available.
In the short term, we can do more to identify the start of this usage funnel: what triggers you to use your phone:
- Notifications
- Calls
- Research (Googling)
- Boredom
All 4 of these are appropriate use cases as long as they are held in check. 1-3 you can even limit with settings on the device. Leaving #4 as the lone usage case you yourself need to manage.
I wish I had the data on this but if I were to guess it would look something like this:
Cell Phone Usage Rate:
- Notifications – 32%
- Calls – 4%
- Research – 22%
- Boredom – 42%
Often times the promise of a notification is enough for us to pull our phone out of our pockets and check for updates. Hell! I’ve checked my phone 4 times in the 12 minutes writing this!! Turning off notifications isn’t enough of a barrier if we wish to engage our impulses. Potentially it needs to be as drastic as setting your phone’s color to greyscale and setting up a 20 digit password that utilizes characters across 3 keyboard screens. It may seem drastic, but how else do you deem you can correct your addictive habits?
‘Myself’ has been an awful disciplinarian in the past at attempting to curb my mobile app addiction.
So of the ~40% of phone usage that is triggered by boredom, quick dopamine drag, FOMO, whatever! What exactly is the state we are in and the trigger that onsets the action?
On mobile, often we have routines of apps we commonly check in sequence to gain a sense of completion when we’ve sufficiently viewed noti’s and scrolled through timelines. A quick stalk here and there and now we are ready to resume work.
On desktop, often scrolling distracting sites is precipitated with the completion of a task OR it’s the avoidance of a necessary task.
Let’s focus on mobile distractions with a deeper question: Is this time well spent?
What value do we derive from checking social media? Is staying up to speed with freinds and peers social channels an accomplishment? Because pondering and writing this it seems it’s a plight. I wish I could have half of this time back to work on personal ventures and goals.
It’s the unspoken necessity, being a good digital friend means keeping up in others digital lives. Real life outings have to be logged on our digital journals, signalling external validation is often more important than spending that time with those we are present with.
So when we are not out creating digital journal entries, we are spending free time ‘liking’ how peers are spending their lives.
The feed is often one directional, with us seeking out updates to our friends lives rather than being sent them. And this brings us full circle to where we feel the need to constantly be connected with what is happening in others lives for our myriad of egotistical reasons.
So scrolling through apps – Is this time well spent?
Next, I want to examine how I can identify the triggers in my day that necessitate the need to be distracted, and build a plan to reinforce better usage of that time.