I was born in 1974 and we got our first game console in 1979 and our second in 1980, then we got our first home computer, the Commodore 64, in 1982, followed by the Amiga 500 in 1986. In 1993, as I moved from the “demo scene” into the game industry forming my first own company with three friends, I switched to PC and I have built, overclocked, and customized every computer I’ve had to my needs since then. I’ve not only used computers in my spare time to do creative work like art or music, but also mainly in my professional career as a writer, author, editor-in-chief, bodybuilding & fitness coach, nutritionist, researcher, supplement developer, photographer, and much more. I’ve spent most of my time in front of computer screens and you would think that I love technology, but I do not. I like computers and the PC platform where I have total control and can do what I want, but that does not mean that I do not recognize or understand the problems and dangers with technology and with sitting in front of three screens for hours on end. Actually, I have three computers and seven screens in different setups, but that’s beside the point. Now, I’ve always made it a habit to get up and move around every hour when I’m working and to exercise my eyes by taking a minute or two to focus on objects at different distances, and as you know, I spend 3 to 6 hours outdoors every day with my dogs and try to meet up with friends or other dog owners almost every day for an hour or two.
And, of course, I still lift at a gym 4 or 5 times a week, although only for 30 minutes a time, but that’s more than plenty. And that takes us to today’s summary by Examine.com of a study on smartphones, a device that virtually is a screen.
Being a computer guy, I never liked smartphones, as they are extremely cumbersome and slow to work with and type on. Pretty much useless. Not to mention the radiation, especially if you hold it or have it close to your body. That is asking for tumors. And anything I can do on a smartphone I can do ten times better and faster on a computer with large screens, a real keyboard and a mouse. So, I hardly use my smartphone at all — only for the occasional photo as it is easier to bring with you than a large system camera with a zoom lens. And also because you actually can use it as a phone if something happens. Yeah, “old-school.”
Quick Study Summary
So, in this randomized controlled trial in 267 adults (average age of 32,) the subjects blocked smartphone internet access for 2 to 4 weeks while the researchers measured any improvements in the participants’ mental health, subjective well-being, and attention.
In other words, the participants could only use the phones for calls and text messages. No social media, no apps that required internet access, and so on.
Key study details
“The participants installed an application on their phone that blocked all forms of internet access while still allowing texts and calls to be sent and received. The application also allowed the investigators to track compliance with the intervention. The participants were still free to access the internet from other sources, like desktop computers.”
In other words, they limited the impulse to repeatedly grab their smartphone to check social media feeds, new reels, videos, images and such — as in getting instant gratification through dopamine release. This dopamine release is triggered by new posts, funny images and memes, likes, comments, and notifications, which act as immediate rewards. Over time, this cycle can make you crave more of these rewards, leading to a habit of constantly checking your phone. This behavior can change your brain’s response, making you experience a dopamine surge even before you receive a reward, such as just seeing your phone nearby. This can make it harder to resist the urge to check your phone and engage in social media activities, potentially leading to an unhealthy reliance (addiction) on instant gratification.
“Changes during the intervention period were compared to a 2-week control period in which participants had unrestricted access to mobile internet. Half of the participants followed the control first, then followed the intervention for 2 weeks (delayed intervention), while the other half of the participants followed the intervention for 4 weeks (immediate intervention).”
Not only is the instant gratification that turns into an addiction a huge mental problem (which we can observe by just going outside and watch all frikkin’ zombies walking with their smartphones out, staring at the screen,) but it’s also an enormous strain on the eyes and it will mess severely with your hormones if you use devices with screens in the evening which will destroy your sleep quality. I wrote about screens, led-lights, and blue light many, many years ago and it’s something I have in all my educational guides as it is so important to understand the negative impact on your health.
“Blocking smartphone internet access resulted in the following effects:
- Reduced daily smartphone screen time (–153 minutes per day in the 4-week intervention, –131 minutes per day in the 2-week intervention)
- Improved subjective well-being (based on a composite of positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction)
- Improved mental health (based on composite of depression, anxiety, anger, social anxiety, and personality functioning)
- Improved attention (based on accuracy during a test of sustained attention and reductions in self-reported attention lapses)”
By removing the urge to constantly check your smartphone, as in blocking the internet, daily smartphone screen time was reduced by 2.4 hours! Heck, I don’t even use my smartphone for 15 minutes a day. It’s usually on a cabinet on the other side of the room. Anyhow, 2.4 hours is insane when you still can use your computer to check the exact same things.
And this reduction, in only 2 weeks, significantly improved sleep quality, mental health, well-being, social-connectedness, the feeling of self-control, and sustained attention. Well, I’m not surprised. Still, most addicted people would not be able to do this, not even restrict their usage to specific times of the day.
“A majority (83%) of the participants reported being motivated to reduce smartphone use, and participants who completed the full study did have better mental health and attention abilities at baseline than participants who dropped out.”
Yes, no surprises there.
The big picture
“In recent years, smartphones — mobile phones with internet access and web browsing — have gone from a relative novelty to a ubiquitous product owned by the majority of people in the world. Some research has suggested that this widespread change is not without downsides.”
Are there really any positives? Very few (professional) people use smartphones effectively in their work and as a marketing tool (as in influencers.) The majority of people are simply addicted to the instant gratification and the false feeling of being “kept in the loop” about what is “trending” and “what is new.” Normal and intelligent people couldn’t care less about what the flock of sheep thinks, and that’s why I hardly pick up my smartphone and why I rarely use social media (also, my Facebook is heavily modified by browser plugins and extensions, removing all the clutter and crap I do not want to see, as in 90% of the application.)
“One of the more widely studied possible harms of smartphones concerns their effect on mental health. In general, research on this subject is fairly inconsistent, perhaps partly due to the variable ways people use smartphones and thus, the potential psychological effects of their use. That’s all to say that based on current evidence, it doesn’t appear that smartphones are inherently deleterious to mental health and they may actually have negative, neutral, or even beneficial effects depending on the context in which they’re used. The purpose, duration, and intentionality of using these devices may play a role in their effects on mental health.”
Again, the majority, as in probably 90% of all people, only use smartphones to get that instant gratification, as a distraction or an escape from their real life to pass some time (as in work or school, or when going somewhere as they no longer can simply relax, enjoy a short break without doing anything or have an internal dialogue where they let their thoughts fly.)
And this is likely why we see these mental issues.
“However, one mental health condition that high smartphone use is occasionally linked to is depression. Several randomized controlled trials have found that restricting social media, or smartphone use more generally, resulted in reductions in depression symptoms.
A couple of clinical trials have also observed improvements in anxiety and well-being with smartphone or social media restriction, but other trials have reported no effect on these measures. In the summarized study, mental health improved, but mental health was based on a composite of multiple measures, including depression, anxiety, and anger, and it’s unclear which of these specific aspects of mental health were improved.”
It doesn’t really matter as we all are mentally different and addictions can influence us in very different ways. What is important is to recognize that it is not normal to grab that smartphone every now and again to check some apps or social media feeds. It’s important to recognize the addictive behavior and all the consequences thereof, the stress responses from instant gratification and dopamine release, and especially the strain on the eyes and the damage screen time with blue-light can do in the evenings.
Now, much of this is also true for computers, and that is why I’m mindful of my own use and that I mostly use it for work, creativity and to be productive, not to procrastinate.
“One of the more compelling theories is that smartphones can worsen mental health by negatively affecting sleep. Insufficient sleep is consistently associated with worse mental health, especially a higher risk of depression, and multiple facets of mental health can be improved by interventions that improve sleep.”
That is not a “theory,” that is a fact, it’s biology and physiology. If you use a smartphone, or a computer in the evening, you get exposed to blue-light from the screen and you also get these dopamine releases. While you can block blue-light with protective glasses or lower it by applications that turn your screen orange, you will still get mentally stimulated and wired from using them, and that will also interfere with sleep. This is why I always recommend to dim the lights around 7 p.m. and to use blue-light blockers and if possible, to not use any devices or look at screens after 8 p.m. This simple information has been in my coaching guides since 2010. Still, most people will stare at their stupid smartphones or tablets in their bed before going to sleep. Idiotic.
“In line with this, blocking smartphone internet access increased participants’ self-reported sleep time in the summarized study, a finding consistent with several previous studies. In fact, some studies have found that sleep quality and/or quantity is improved when smartphone use is only restricted within about 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime.”
Yes, but 30 to 60 minutes before bed is not enough. Make that 90 to 120 minutes and you will really notice a difference in sleep quality. Same as in not eating anything 4 to 6 hours prior to sleep, which is even more important.
“Smartphones may negatively affect sleep because they emit significant amounts of blue light, which inhibits melatonin release from the pineal gland. Blocking blue light via special glasses or display filters doesn’t always produce clear improvements in sleep though,[19] which suggests other factors also contribute. Another important mediator may be the ability of smartphone use to encourage bedtime procrastination, as smartphone use can cause people to stay up later than they would have otherwise.”
You almost got it. I explained the other factors above, that of brain stimulation and getting excited from dopamine release as you get your fix as an addicted technology junkie. Your brain will stay wired for a while after using these devices as it’s been stimulated. That will interfere with both falling asleep and your first sleep cycle before the nervous system can settle down and your body can relax. Simple physiology and biology.
“Adversely affecting sleep isn’t the only possible way that smartphones affect mental health. Smartphone use may also have more indirect effects by altering what activities people spend their time on. In the summarized study, participants reported spending their extra “offline” time exercising, reading books, being in nature, and socializing in person. These behaviors could all plausibly improve mental health and were suggested by the investigators as possible mediators of the improved mental health findings.”
Yes, that’s a good point. Being outside in nature and moving around a little is what is natural for humans and something we will all benefit from. Same with some social interaction, especially if we can choose the people we interact and socialize with, people that share some similarities with us.
“The improvement in attention could be related to a decrease in the total volume of information being encountered on a day to day basis as a result of not using the internet and social media. Some research suggests that exposure to a high volume of information can essentially overload the brain with data, leading to a reduced ability to process information, thereby worsening attention.”
Yes, look at today’s availability of useless information to that of only 20 years ago. It’s not even comparable. Of course you will be overstimulated if you’re addicted to your smartphone and check it all the time.
Examine.com’s take
“While it may be tempting to make sweeping proclamations about the harms of using smartphones, the truth is more nuanced, since the positive and negative effects of smartphones depend heavily on how they’re used. It does appear that for some people, limiting smartphone and/or social media use (especially close to bedtime) can be useful as part of a comprehensive approach to improving mental health, particularly when done in favor of activities that support increased social connection, physical activity, and emotional enrichment.”
Shills will be shillin’. This randomized controlled trial, and the subject at hand, was about smartphones and internet access — as in what the typical user does with his or her smartphone when connected to the internet, which mostly is procrastination such as scrolling through social media feeds and/or videos and images for getting that dose of instant gratification.
Sure, you can use a smartphone for business or educational stuff, but that is very rare amongst the average user and also a very, very small percentage of total use. And again, that was not the subject of the study.
So, in this case, as we’re reviewing a study/trial about addiction and mental health problems, it’s all about that instant gratification and that is very unhealthy. That is simple biology and physiology. There’s no way around it. The vast majority of people would be much better off with restricted use of their smartphones — no matter if it’s during the day or only in the evening. Using it during the day is equivalent to micro-dosing a stimulant/drug to achieve small peaks of happiness while escaping reality for a moment. And doing it in the evening will have a severe impact on your sleep and thus on your detoxification and recovery.
In simple terms, inveterate use of your smartphone will damage your mental health and likely your body too in the long run.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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