My name is Zara, and I need to admit something: I am completely and utterly addicted to my phone. 

I’ve spent years building an online news platform, so it should be no surprise that my appetite for information is significant. 

However, in recent years, this addiction to instant information has led me to check my phone multiple times in the middle of the night, first thing in the morning, and most waking hours in between. Importantly, I usually scroll mindlessly through social media and don't actually consume anything particularly useful.

After many group chat conversations about how this modern addiction is manifesting itself among my girlfriends, I decided it was time to put my questions to an expert. 

Below, I unpack some of the biggest questions about social media addiction with Dr Danielle Einstein, an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University’s School of Psychological Sciences.

Dr Einstein is clear on this: 100%. Phone addiction is absolutely a real thing. It’s not the result of a lack of willpower or discipline, but a matter of genuine addiction and psychology.

The research tells us that our phone delivers intermittent rewards, which means sometimes there is a positive message/email/notification waiting for us, and other times, there is nothing waiting for us and we are just plain disappointed.

Dr Einstein explains that when worries preoccupy us, this habit (of checking and rechecking your phone) really pulls us in. She says that if we aren’t careful, we can come to rely on these “rewards” (on our phone) as our only way of lifting our mood back up. The apps themselves are designed to keep us hooked, and when you combine those two factors, you see how addiction forms.

In terms of the science, Dr Einstein says we've seen dopamine hits altering our reward pathways, changes in the ability to think clearly, plan, and make decisions. She adds:

“There are now neuroimaging studies showing that adolescents with problematic digital use display reduced fronto-striatal connectivity, disruptions in attention and self-referencing networks.”

I’m no scientist, but even I can translate that…. It ain’t good.

Dr Einstein’s suggestion is simple: Put it away when you are out and about. Put it away when you have something better to do. If it is out of sight, feel and earshot, you will not be (as) drawn to it, and you can slowly develop your muscles of handling uncertainty and calming yourself in the moment.

My (un)expert suggestion: You can turn your phone to display to grayscale (black and white) through the accessibility settings. From personal experience, removing the bright colours can make checking your phone (and especially socials) unrewarding, leading you to doing it less.

Alright, so it turns out that I’m not alone, and that the addictive pull of phones is real. That “pull” I feel at all hours of the day (and night!) to pick up my phone is a result of predictable conditioning and reinforcement processes rather than me being weak.

As governments, institutions and researchers around the world reckon with what to do with this pervasive pull, I’d love to hear from you: what have you found to be the most effective way to break your phone addiction? 

Hit reply to this email and let me know.

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