It’s a fairly well-agreed fact that phones interfere with our sleep, degrade our relationships, and trash our productivity. They may also cause our creativity to wane by providing instant answers for everything. Our phones stress our batteries into dying sooner too, because of all the apps. However, batteries are not the only ones stressing over these devices.
It Not Just Batteries Stressing, It’s Us Too
Chantel Manuel drew inspiration from The New York Times when she wrote for The Independent on May 4, 2019. She has concluded smartphones are “explicitly designed to trigger dopamine in our brains the same way slot machines do”.
Both devices compel us to keep on using them by providing intermittent rewards psychologists regard as most powerfully behaviour-shaping. Slot machines reward us with money and the hope of even more money if we continue using them. Forget about batteries stressing and dying. Smartphones have our attention just in case the next message is important. It seldom is, but you never know.
This Creates a Constant Sense of Obligation
David Greenfield is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He also founded the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. He says triggering dopamine releases cortisol responsible for our flight-or-fight responses.
The presence of this cortisol causes spikes in blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar, he warns. Eventually we become so conditioned we literally can’t put the phone out of sight.
Google has chimed in by noting the average American spends four hours a day staring at their smartphone. It adds “mobile devices loaded with social media, email and news apps create a constant sense of obligation. This generates unintended personal anxiety, according to Google.
Chronically-elevated cortisol levels increase our risk of developing most modern diseases. Perhaps we should worry less about our batteries stressing our phone life, and be more anxious about our phones shortening our days.
Related
The Stressful Life of Smartphone Batteries
When Human Life Equates to Battery Life
Preview Image: I Cant Let You Go
