There are a number of vices and things to get addicted to in the world. You have the things perceived as worse than others, but even things like television can become addictions.
I would say that anything that negatively affects yourself like your health or your work and anything that affects the people you care about would be in the addiction category.
One off the things that has really come on the scene in terms of addiction in the smartphone.
You want a crazy number?
Apple sold 10 million iPhone 6s in the first week!
That’s crazy.
Here are a couple other stats…
People My Age Spend 1 Hour A Day On Apps
People in my age bracket – 25-34 – spend over 35 hours each month using apps on their phones. So that’s a little more than one hour per day.
I actually think that the number seems a little low, but I’m sure it’s less for some and a lot more for others.
Just thinking about how much I use my phone each day leaves me thinking that I spend about 3 hours each day using some kind of app on my phone.
My favorites are:
- iBooks
- NY Times Crossword
- PGA Tour
- Golf Channel
That list goes in order. I can spend an hour each morning reading a book in iBooks on my phone. So that sucks up a lot of the time I spend. I usually spend another 30 minutes to an hour working on crosswords. The rest of the time I’m looking at Twitter, reading articles on Pocket or checking things out on the other apps.
I don’t know if that makes me addicted to my smartphone, but I have noticed times when using my smartphone has affected my personal life.
Smartphones And Family
There are times when my wife has a questions about something or wants to tell me something. I might be reading an article on my phone or doing a crossword. It’s hard for me to put that stupid thing down to listen like I should.
I would say that’s getting into the bad zone for smartphone usage. So it’s my task to get better at not letting the smartphone become more important than family.
It’s an easy concept when you think about your priorities, but that smartphone can creep up your priority list very easily.
Smartphones, Friends And Hobbies
Smartphones can also get in the way when you’re hanging out with friends. You’re doing your hobbies and somebody has their smartphone out checking SnapChats, iMessages and Facebook. It can drive you nuts especially when you want to talk about something.
The bad thing is that you might be the friend that is doing it and you don’t even realize it. Think about it the next time you’re hanging out with friends.
Final Thought
I’ve been trying to get better with my smartphone use. I think I’m improving. Sometimes I think people even get mad because I’m not the best at returning texts and calls right away. It’s because I try to leave my phone in different rooms when I’m doing things.
Or if I’m hanging out with family and friends I leave my phone off or in my jacket pocket so it’s not there to distract me.
There are a lot of good things that smartphones bring to our lives, but we have to be careful not to let it get into addiction territory where the smartphone is becoming more important than family, friends and work.