In 2007, some surprising events began to occur. People reported that they were beginning to feel less happy and that loneliness was beginning to increase. What changed that year? This was the year when smartphones became widely available. Technological visionaries such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates also understood its potential impact. Steve Jobs did not allow his children to use iPads. Bill Gates kept his children off the phone until they were 14 or 15. They knew something about these devices that many of us have just begun to understand.
This post is not about leaving your phone or saying that the phones are bad. Rather, it aims to highlight important facts about the device that is always with you. Our goal is to help you improve your relationship with your phone. We’ll discuss three main aspects: how your phone hacks your brain, how it changes your mind and life, and finally, what practical steps you can take to improve your relationship with it.
How Your Phone Dodges Your Brain
The story of how your phone hacks your brain starts with something called Pleasure Activation. We naturally want to do things that make us feel good and make us happy. When we experience pleasure, our brain releases a chemical called dopamine. This happens when we do something we enjoy, like eating our favorite food, traveling, shopping, or playing games. But dopamine comes out even when we think about these pleasurable things.
Explanation of the Pleasure Loop
The problem is not pleasure itself, but a cycle called the Pleasure Loop. It works as follows:
- You do something that makes you enjoy.
- Your brain releases dopamine.
- After some time, dopamine levels return to normal.
- Your brain craves that dopamine rush again.
- You have a strong desire to repeat that activity.
- Â You do that again, get pleasure, and this cycle goes on.
If you pick up your phone every few minutes, or when you’re bored or depressed, you’re the first to pick up the phone, you may be stuck in this pleasure cycle.
The engineer behind this cycle
On one side you are. On the other hand, thousands of engineers are working to keep you in this bliss cycle. Their main goal is that you use their apps as much as possible. For this they adopt clever strategies.
There are three main ways to keep an engineer engaged:
• Newness: Humans love new things. Think about starting a new relationship, a new car, or a new home. This enthusiasm gradually decreases. App designers know this. They constantly give you new information, new messages, new features and new content. Every time you open your phone, something new happens. It keeps you interested and brings you back again and again, thereby strengthening the joy cycle.
• Anxiety: We naturally want to solve problems and relieve stress. App engineers create small moments of anxiety that only the phone can “solve”. For example, a notification comes suddenly and you wonder what it is. You may worry about not being aware of what is happening in the world or in the lives of your friends. These little stresses make you pick up the phone to “solve” them, letting you get deeper into the habit.
• Gratitude: Since childhood, we love to hear praise. When we first spoke, walked or did well in school, we received applause and applause. Social media apps are designed to meet this gratitude need. Likes, comments, answers and seeing who saw your post or story give you a sense of validation. This feeling of gratitude makes you happy and encourages you to look at the phone again and again, pulling you into a cycle of joy.
How Your Phone Changes Your Brain And Life
It is important to understand how something that is constantly present affects our brain and daily life. There are different types of memories in our brain that work together.
The power of working memory
There are two main types of our memory:
• Long-term memory: It stores important information, such as a relative’s phone number or important life events such as births, deaths, accidents or marriages. If something is repeated over and over again or has a very deep impact, it goes into long-term memory.
• Working memory: It’s your temporary memory, like a mental scratchpad. It contains information that you are actively using right now. For example, you may remember information from last week, but if it is not confirmed, it becomes blurry.
Working memory plays an important role in what is transferred to your long-term memory. However, working memory also has limitations. We often tire of it unintentionally and overuse it, especially with our smartphones.
Consider your phone’s social media feed, such as Instagram. Within seconds, your brain can experience many different emotions: joy from a funny post, jealousy from seeing someone else’s success, anger from a news story, or excitement from seeing a photo of a friend. The rapid shift between these emotions puts a huge strain on your working memory. Even while driving a car, constantly keeping your brain busy in this way can lead to severe mental fatigue.
Results of overuse
This constant overstimulation of your working memory has several negative effects:
- Mental fatigue: You get tired quickly.
- Growing loneliness: Despite being connected online, people feel more isolated.
- Decreased concentration and attention: Your ability to concentrate for long periods of time is affected.
- Short attention span: You find it difficult to concentrate on one task.
These effects spread to every aspect of your life, affecting your work, career, relationships, and overall happiness. Its connection to 2007 is clear: with the rise of smartphones came a decline in general happiness and an increase in loneliness.
Improve Your Relationship With Your Phone
The good news is that you can make the most of your smartphone’s power by learning to use it carefully. Here are some practical tips that will help you build a better relationship with your device.
1. Measure to control your usage
You can’t control what you don’t measure. Every smartphone has a feature that shows you how much time you spend on your phone and which apps you use the most. Simply checking this information can answer many questions related to your habits. This small step gives you valuable information.
2. Control information
Imagine trying to focus on something important and your doorbell ringing continuously, and different people coming and going. Unnecessary phone notifications completely spoil your concentration. Turn off all information that is not absolutely necessary. Keep only those you really need.
3. Make your phone look less attractive
Many popular apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Zoom use blue color in their designs. This is because blue is known to keep your mind active. If your phone continues to tempt you, you can change its appearance to make it less attractive. Turn on Grayscale mode on your phone. This removes all color, making the screen look less attractive and often less attractive.
4. Use focus and do not disturb modes
Distraction not only wastes your time but also reduces the quality of your work. Your phone has built-in features like focus mode and Do Not Disturb (DND) mode. Use these whenever you need to focus on something. These modes turn off notifications and help you stay focused.
5. Create careful wallpapers
Many times, we pick up our phone for no specific reason and get lost in it. Why not use your phone’s home screen as a reminder to stay more attentive? Put a wallpaper with a simple message, such as “Don’t pick up the phone without reason” or “Put down the phone” My team and I have created some useful wallpapers that you can download to remind yourself to use your phone purposefully. You can find them here: Wallpaper for conscious phone use._
6. Change your phone’s alarm
Many people keep their phone near their bed at night because they use it as an alarm clock. This leads to constant scrolling before bed and immediately after waking up, which weakens your memory. A simple alarm clock costs about ₹150. Be sure to buy an alarm clock. Keep your phone away from your bed. This small change can protect your happiness, concentration, attention, relationships, work and career.
7. Stop using the phone before sleeping
As soon as it gets dark, our brain naturally releases a hormone that signals our body to relax and get ready to sleep. During the day, this hormone decreases, helping us wake up. However, the light from the mobile phone screen, especially the blue light, makes our brains think it’s day. It suppresses natural sleep hormones, keeping many people up late. Lack of sleep has negative effects on metabolism, sugar level, digestion, concentration and mental strength. The solution is simple: Stop using the phone shortly before your scheduled bedtime.
8. Practice “no phubbing”
Phubbing occurs when a person looks at their phone ignoring the person with them (Phone + Snubbing). Make a rule of “no phubbing”. If someone else takes out their phone, resist the urge to do so. This gives you two benefits: you can focus on the present moment and relax. Instead of exhausting your working memory, you can strengthen it by observing the environment around you and immersing yourself in your thoughts.
9. Use phone meditation
My team and I have done a lot of research for this post, and during this time I have personally improved many of my phone habits. One technique that helped me a lot is phone meditation.
When you feel like picking up the phone, take a moment and ask yourself:
- What am I feeling right now?
- Why do I need to pick up the phone?
- Is it a true need, or just a longing?
- Am I falling into a cycle of bliss or a trap set by an engineer?
Asking these easy questions and pausing even for a few seconds can give you a lot of clarity. If you pick up your phone carefully, this can be a useful tool. If you pick it up without thinking, it can cause harm. Phone Meditation helps you transform from a mindless phone user to a conscious user.
10. Keep your home screen clean and organized
Just think, about a buffet with lots of dining options; you overeat. The same applies to your phone’s home screen. Many apps can cause excessive use of the phone. Keep your home screen as clean and organized as possible, and only essential apps are visible.
11. Create a schedule
Why do presidents, prime ministers, athletes and successful leaders manage their phones so well? One simple reason for this is that they have a schedule. They know when to work, when to enjoy, when to use social media, and what’s most important. This gives them a chance to develop and enjoy life every day. If you create a daily schedule that includes different times for phone use, work, and rest, you can live your life to the fullest and achieve your goals.
12. Set “No Phone Zone”
While we can’t leave our phones completely, we can create certain places in our home where phones aren’t allowed. This could be a quiet corner, a special room or your study area. These “no phone zones” give you the chance to spend time with yourself, contemplate, or relax without distractions.
Conclusion
Our aim of this post was to help you better understand the device that is always with you and improve your relationship with it. By becoming more aware of how smartphones impact our brains and adopting simple, practical strategies, we can transform our relationship with technology from dependency to conscious use.
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