Tag: phones

A solution to phone addiction?

I have been thinking a little bit further with regards societies addiction to our mobile devices and in particular mobile phones, a subject I only recently posted on (read my earlier post here).   My thoughts were initially focused on my need to address this issue as an individual.   I have two main mobile devices in a mobile phone and a tablet device with the tablet device being equipped with 4G.    The issue at hand was the fact that my evenings and weekends are often interspersed with the stereo chirps from my devices as tweets and other social media contributions are received.   Upon hearing the chirps I am quite often drawn to pick up my tablet in particular to check what exciting new information has been shared.   The sense of anticipation of exciting information draws me to my device however the repeated disappointment upon reading the information appears insufficient in convincing me of the real nature of the information a chirp is likely to signal.   Equipped with the knowledge of this addiction towards checking my mobile devices I sought to change my own practice and quickly found the solution in “do not disturb” mode on my android devices with exceptions setup to allow for phone calls and alarms.   This now means I check my device when I want to as opposed to when notifications draw me to my devices.  I am more in control.

It was at this point that I again gave thought to society as a whole as clearly this solution might work for others, however most people are likely to leave their devices with default settings.    In Thaler and Sunstein’s (2008) book, Nudge, reference is made to the tendency for people to adopt the default state even when other options may be better.    They suggest that we can help people make a better choice, we can nudge them, by changing the default option.    With this in mind I wonder what the impact would be if Android and Apple phones all came with “do not disturb” or similar enabled for the hours from 10pm to 6am or a similar time period as a default.    Would this nudge people towards being less addicted to their devices?    Users could always disable this feature if they want, as they can enable it currently however the default setting would no longer result in a chirp or other audible signal to draw us to our devices at all hours of the night.

I wonder if Google or Apple would be willing to consider this minor change in the interests of society, at least as a pilot study?

 

References:

Thaler and C. Sunstein, 2008, Yale University Press.

Phone addiction.

Over the last year or so I have became more and more aware of as issue in relation to new reports and articles focusing on issues which schools need to address.  The issue in question is the narrow framing of issues as being education or youth related issues.   This implies that the issue is either confined to schools or confined to the young, when in fact the issue in hand is often observable in wider society.

Another recent example came from The Times (Read the full article here) towards the end of January which reported that one third of children check their phone every few minutes.   This seems to suggest a youth related issue and begs the question: what can we do to address children’s use of smartphones?

An article from the BBC from September 2016 (Read the full article here), some 4 months early, suggests that one third of adults admit to having arguments with their partners due to overuse of smart phones.    Considering the two reports it would appear that they both reported the same issue, perceived over use of smart phones, but focussed on two different age ranges.    Taken together the two reports suggest the issue is prevalent across all ages and therefore could be considered an issue of current society at large.  The question now at hand is therefore how can we address the issue of smartphone use within our current society?

Sat writing this as my wife flicks through the TV and on-demand programme lists I can’t help but think that this relates to the always on and on-demand nature of communications.    I no longer have to sit down at a particular time on a particular date to watch a TV programme.  I can watch it as and when I want.   I no longer have to wait until after 6pm to contact friends, waiting for them to finish work and arrive home.   I can now just send them a Facebook message or Whatsapp message at any time of day, which they can access and reply to independent of if they are working, travelling, etc.    Having lived outside of the UK for a period this technology allows me to contact my friends and ex-colleagues who now lives all over the world in different time zones.    So their messages may be sent in mid-afternoon but arrive with me in the early hours.

I think the hyper connectedness of current society is inevitable given the technology and the opportunities it has opened up.  The key is in making all people, including children, mindful of it.   And on that note I will put my laptop down and join my wife in the social activity of watching Saturday evening TV.