Summer Revely
In light of writing this article, I have thought more about my phone use over the past week. I decided to go cold turkey for a day to see how it would feel. What I saw was once only a site of dystopian dreams. From the second I left my house, almost everyone had a smartphone in their hand. Walking to the bus stop. Waiting at the bus stop. On the bus. While getting off the bus. It’s everywhere. At lunch, everyone was seated separately, staring downward at their blue light-emitting brick. The next day, I picked up my phone to join them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like how much my phone takes over my day. And yet, I can’t stop. It’s no secret that we’re all glued to our phones, and this article explores why that is.
OTHER THAN SLEEPING, WE SPEND MORE TIME ON OUR PHONES THAN WHILE DOING ANYTHING ELSE
The student lifestyle is very much oriented around phone and social media use. I do wonder how societies even existed before WhatsApp chats and Facebook groups. One investigation carried out in Thailand, which focused on university students, reported that 29.7% use their smartphones for 4 to 6 hours each day, and 23.5% spend 6 to 8 hours scrolling. For context, the slowest LNER service from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley takes 4 hours and 30 minutes…
Sadly, phone addiction does not stop after university. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) recently released its 2025 data on daily screen time. 25 to 34-year-olds spend a staggering average of 7 hours and 13 minutes each day on their phones. This does drop with age, but only to a trough of 5 hours and 14 minutes in 55 to 64-year-olds. From these numbers, I think we can almost certainly say that other than sleeping, we spend more time on our phones than doing anything else.
So, what actually is it that makes mobile devices so addictive? Since the creation of TikTok and almost all other outlets jumping on the short-form content train, social media has gained a new string to its bow. This is because bite-sized clips trigger a rapid dopamine release with every single swipe, flooding the brain with a feel-good hormone. As a result, the brain learns over time that it can so easily get a quick fix whenever it needs it. That’s why you keep coming back for more.
It’s important to add, though, that it’s not just short-form content that takes over the nervous system in that way. Social media was built to be engrossing from the get-go. If you have access to it, I highly recommend the documentary on Netflix titled ‘The Social Dilemma’ that summarises this nicely. Ultimately, social media outlets are money-makers for their creators. When they built these platforms, everything, from the colour palettes to the user interfaces, comment windows, and the like button, is made to keep you there. Think about it. There’s no feeling quite like your crush liking your latest post, or having a laugh at the Karens in everyone’s comments. Every bit of temporary happiness that you get from your smartphone was designed in a way that evokes exactly that. Even the device itself is created to be so aesthetically pleasing that you can’t put it down.
BEYOND MENTAL HEALTH EFFECTS, THERE’S ALSO OFTEN A REDUCTION IN SLEEP QUALITY OF REGULAR PHONE USERS.
Given that social media outlets are still relatively new (the World Wide Web was only publicly accessible 33 years ago), there’s little long-term research on the effects of excessive social media use. There are shorter-term studies, though, including one which revealed that teenagers with problematic smartphone use are twice as likely to have anxiety. Another showed that when compared to low to moderate users, those with higher smartphone use had a 6.9 point increase in their depression score. The scale only has 27 points. Beyond mental health effects, there’s also often a reduction in sleep quality among regular phone users. ‘Text neck’ and ‘smartphone pinky’ show our bodies are physically changing as a result of phone use. I didn’t know ‘smartphone pinky’ was a thing until writing this, but now that I do, I can definitely relate.
I don’t know for sure what the dark side of excessive phone use is long-term, and neither do researchers. But from what we do know, I don’t want to keep my current screen time levels going and wait to find out. Phones are great tools for staying in touch with those far away, but be sure to make space for dedicated quality time with those that you love. The long-term gratification that you can gain from this, and non-digital entertainment sources, cannot be replaced by phone use.
If you’ve read this far, take a moment to look up.
Summer Revely
Feature image courtesy Sanket Mishra of via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In-article image 1 courtesy of Alexander Schimmeck via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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