Washington Post
WASHINGTON: Every year, my husband and I take our kids on a two-week trip that differs from our other holidays in one significant way: we completely unplug from the internet. No iPhones, no e-mail, no Facebook. We don’t even check the news.
At first it’s hard. I feel twitchy, unsettled and panicky. After a few days, though, amazing things start to happen. We talk more and dream up new ideas. We read more books. Even the boys become content to stare out windows on long car rides.
But it never lasts. No matter how much I vow to resist the smartphone when I come home, I soon find myself resuming old habits: answering SMSes while making dinner, reading articles while brushing my teeth and ignoring my husband while I comment on Facebook posts.
Worried that I might have a problem, I called David Greenfield, a psychiatrist at the University of Connecticut and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction.
I’m far from alone, he confirmed, and it’s nothing new. Since the 1990s, he says, dozens of studies have documented the addictive nature of the internet. And access to the internet has only intensified with the popularity of smartphones.
Brain studies, in particular, reveal how vulnerable we are to the unpredictability of what we might find with each swipe. Reward areas light up. Our brains surge with feel-good chemicals, such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. Down go levels of chemicals that signal anxiety and stress.
Meanwhile, an endless series of beeps, dings and flashing lights reminds us that a potential reward might be waiting.
“The internet is the world’s largest slot machine,” Greenfield says. “And the smartphone is the world’s smallest slot machine.”
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011, according to a Pew study. Most don’t have true addictions that interfere with life and relationships in detrimental ways, Greenfield says.
But many of us wish we used our phones less. In the Pew report, more than a third of people reported that their phones made them feel frustrated and more than half said it made them feel distracted.
And while there aren’t good statistics on how often people use their smartphones, preliminary results of a new study found that college students unlock their devices 60 to 80 times a day for three minutes at a time, says psychologist Larry Rosen, co-author of the forthcoming book The Distracted Mind: How to Focus When Technology Hijacks Your Brain.
Smartphones don’t kill people directly, but there are reasons to be concerned. In an AT&T survey last year, more than 60 percent of people admitted to SMSing while driving and cellphones are now associated with 26 percent of car accidents.
Other negative health consequences related to excessive internet use include depression, elevated blood pressure and sleep deprivation. Sixteen percent of people in one survey said they woke up multiple times a night to check their phones.