Technology has invaded all aspects of our lives, and has been able to change it in many ways, from e-learning to digital medicine, and not to digital agriculture and cloud kitchens. Screens have become an essential part of human life and it has become very difficult to dispense with them.

Perhaps one of the most important manifestations of the digital revolution is the smart phones that have entered all aspects of our lives and changed our ways of living, including applications, platforms, websites, social media and many others.

The latest international statistics show the enormous importance of these phones in our lives, according to the “Statista” platform, the current number of smart phone users in the world today is 6.648 billion people, and this means that 83.72% of the world’s population owns a smart phone, and this number increases dramatically Bigger than 2016 when there were only 3.668 billion users, 49.40% of the world's population that year.

screen addiction

There are many reasons behind this huge increase, and perhaps one of the most important is the big tech companies with powerful tools, mechanisms and industry pushing specially designed products to cause addiction in a society that has largely succumbed to the standards, urgency and expectations created by all these phones and screens.

What is unfortunate is that the addiction to screens in its greatest manifestation, which is smart phones, has spread among all ages, from adults to young people, teenagers and even children.

Smartphones have entered all aspects of our lives, including applications, websites and social media (Getty Images)

Dr. Adriana Stacey is a psychologist who works primarily with high school and college students in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and during her work routinely asks new patients to unlock their phones and show how much time they spend in front of a screen each day.

“I rarely find one of them spends less than 9 hours on their mobile, so these people spend more time on their phones than they do sleeping,” says Stacey, as the Washington Post reported in a recent report.

Can we stay away from our phones?

This is what British Dulce Cowling (36 years old) decided to do at the end of last year when she had the idea that getting rid of her phone would improve her mental health and save her life, which was about to go crazy because of these phones.

So, at Christmas, she told her family and friends that she would leave her smartphone and go back to using an old Nokia device with which she could only make and receive calls and texts, the BBC recently reported.

Cowling remembers that one of the pivotal moments that led to her decision was spending a day in the park with her two children, ages 6 and 3. 20 people are staring at their phones, not paying attention to their children and what they are doing, and not playing with them."

And she continues, "I put the phone aside and thought: When did this happen? Everyone misses real life, everyone lives in another world completely far from reality, and I asked myself: If I reach my deathbed, will I think I should have spent more time on Twitter, or Read more news online, or watch more movies on YouTube?

The question posed by Mrs. Cowling is very important, perhaps even the most important: Will we remember Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat in our last moments of life, or will we think of that life we ​​lost in front of screens?

Ms. Cowling saved her mental health, and then her life, by deciding once and for all to stay away from these so-called smart phones, and we advise everyone to follow the example of Ms. Cowling, who rediscovered life away from the horror of screens.

Here are 6 reasons to do this, and gain the rest of your health and life, as stated by the “innerdrive” platform, based on a recent scientific study on the topic, which found that mobile smartphones cause many psychological disorders that severely affect the health and mental well-being of humans. physical, including:

Lack of focus and fear

Excessive use of smartphones leads to poor concentration. Taking out your phone while you study, work, or do your homework can make performance 20% worse.

The researchers stress that "the mere presence of a cell phone may be distracting enough to harm your work or study."

Many people, old or young, suffer from fear as a result of the large and accumulated burdens of life, and this problem increases among young people and students of schools and universities due to the uncertainty that accompanies the stage of adolescence and the beginning of youth. Others do it, with an increase in anxiety and tension, and they often check their phones frequently, whether while studying for young people or while working for adults.

Constant excessive use of cell phones leads to increased anxiety and loneliness (Getty Images)

And all this repeated examination of the phone is the result of anxiety and tension, as if someone is waiting for a message or something to save him from his tension and anxiety, and the presence of smart phones has increased this phenomenon significantly.

Fortunately, there are ways to overcome this fear, such as focusing on the present moment, avoiding multiple tasks at once, and reducing time spent on social media.

Forgetting and amnesia

Phone messages and notifications are a distraction that leads to forgetting many tasks, and we often ask our children to do a task, but you are surprised that your son completely forgot what I asked him.

Some studies indicate that forgetfulness and low memory are due in part to the waves emitted by mobile phones, which explains the problem of forgetfulness suffered by many people who are addicted to their phones and phones.

distorted look

Most, if not all, smartphone addicts are also addicted to browsing various social media, and the previous study has proven that these means present a distorted view of reality.

No one is as happy as they appear on Facebook or as wise as they appear on Twitter, and we naturally compare our lives and our reality with these false facts and with those people we think are happy and wise, a comparison that is psychologically and mentally exhausting and causes unhappiness and a feeling of inferiority and reinforces the fear of failure.

Psychological health

Excessive use of cell phones is harmful to your mental health, and leads to increased anxiety, loneliness and low self-esteem. Reliance on cell phones can also lead to annoyance, frustration and impatience when they cannot be used.

No one is as happy as they seem on social media (Getty Images)

 Insomnia and lack of sleep

Using the phone daily for more than 20 minutes at a time leads to poor sleep quality and duration, and those who keep their cell phones in the bedroom sleep shorter times than those who do not, and one reason is that the brightness of the backlight on your phone delays the secretion of the sleep hormone Melatonin keeps you awake for longer.

To sleep more easily, it is recommended to have a regular sleep schedule, exercise two hours before bed, or take a hot shower, and most importantly avoid screens, including mobile phones, before bed, and placing these phones outside the bedroom is the best solution.

Perhaps the best of all would be to dispense with these phones just as Ms. Cowling did, but could we?