Cell Phone Addiction: Here’s How Many Times a Day We Use It

Are you addicted to your cell phone? If you answered no, maybe you need to think again, because nowadays between WhatsApp, social networks, apps of various kinds, SMS and the Internet, many of us spend more time with our heads bent down towards our smartphones than with our eyes to the sky or looking at other eyes.

Cell phone addiction: a study reveals how many times a day we use it

Cell phone addiction is a sad reality. Have you ever wondered how many times a day we pick up our phone, even just to see if there is a warning notification on the display or if someone has contacted us? Here is the average number: 221 times. This is revealed by an English study by the OnePoll institute.

According to this study, cell phone addiction is now a widespread phenomenon in any advanced country, regardless of age, gender and social status. On average, we start using our smartphones at 7:23 in the morning and finish at 23:21 in the evening, for a total overall use of almost 3 hours per half a day. These hours multiplied by the seven days of the week make almost 24 hours. In practice, it is as if we spent an entire day a week interacting with our phone. And what do we use it for? To go on social networks, to send emails, write text messages, surf the Internet, use apps and of course to make phone calls. Man is a social animal, he needs to communicate continuously with others, but if you are not careful, you risk falling into the trap of cell phone addiction and going into digital overdose.

Cell phone addiction: lack of awareness

What is really surprising, however, is that we are completely unaware of the use of our cell phone. Specific tests have in fact shown that people use their smartphones twice as much as they actually believe they do. And if you point out a high level of use, most of them deny it with conviction!

We have completely lost awareness and control over the medium. Using our phone has become automatic, to which we no longer pay attention.

What happens if they take away our cell phone? Removed Social the photographic project by Eric Picksergill

The American photographer Eric Picksergill recently highlighted the phenomenon of cell phone addiction with great irony and humor. With his project Removed Social, he captured, in a funny series of images, some moments that portray us while we use our smartphone even in the most intimate moments. Proof that we are now truly obsessed with it. The gallery of images in fact shows how the phone is now present in every moment of our day: while we are at the family table, when we are with our children, in bed before going to sleep or as soon as we wake up. The great peculiarity and originality of this project lies in the fact that the photographer took the cell phone out of the hands of his models. Only the comical pose remains, the hand holding a non-existent cell phone, a highly ironic metaphor of how our digital tools only give us the illusion of communicating with others and having a social life, while in reality they alienate us, because they prevent us from establishing real relationships and from dialoguing and comparing ourselves with real people.

A new culture for digital: is it possible to get out of addiction?

The basic question then is: are we now resigned to a continuous expectation, anxiety and dependence on our cell phones and all digital tools in general, or is it still possible to find the right balance? Are we facing a growing detachment between real and virtual life, which is endangering our relationships? Is it worth learning to make good digital resolutions, perhaps with small sacrifices?

To begin to give ourselves some answers, it is good to be aware of the need to create and spread a “culture” for a correct and appropriate use of new media and social networks.

It is the first step to build a balanced, free and healthy family and society in our future.

What is missing is a culture for a conscious and aware use of smartphones, tablets and the like. Just as there is a vast and widespread culture for a correct and healthy diet, which protects us from diseases and allows us to lead a balanced life, a technological “diet” is equally necessary, to avoid harmful excesses that can harm the body and mind.

The reflection that we should start to do is then what is digital really taking away from us? For example in terms of reasoning and calculation skills, memory and attention. What important values ​​of our life, such as friendship, love or interpersonal relationships is it conditioning.

Is it possible to get out of the addiction to the cell phone and put technology back in its place, managing to find a healthy way to make the information society coexist with aspects of our life that we are neglecting? We must not eliminate technology, it would be senseless and anachronistic. But we must scale down and avoid unnecessary uses, to find a lost balance.