I am addicted to my cell phone. How can I reduce screen time?

Our work, social lives, and entertainment have become inextricably tied to our devices, and the pandemic has made matters worse. A Pew Research Center survey in April, for example, found that among the 81 percent of U.S. adults who have used video calls to connect with others since the start of the pandemic, 40 percent said they felt “exhausted.” or fatigued” from those calls, and 33 percent said they had tried to reduce the amount of time they spent on the internet or on their cell phones.

Not all cell phone use is bad, of course. Sometimes cell phones “make us happier, enrich us and connect us with other people,” said Adam Alter, a professor of marketing and psychology at New York University’s Stern School of Business. But many people want to cut back, and experts say there are effective ways to do it.

Is it really possible to be addicted to a cell phone?

Excessive cell phone use can manifest itself in many ways. Maybe you stay up late looking at Instagram or TikTok. Or the allure of your smartphone makes it hard to be fully present to yourself, your work, or those around you.

Excessive phone or screen use is not officially recognized as an addiction (or a substance use disorder, as experts call it) in the American Psychiatric Association’s official handbook of mental disorders. But “more and more mental health specialists are recognizing that people can become addicted to their cell phones,” said Anna Lembke, an addictions expert and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

Lembke noted that an addiction is partially defined by the three C’s:

• Control: Using a substance or engaging in behavior (such as gambling) in a way that is considered out of control or more than intended.
• Compulsion: Being intensely preoccupied mentally and using a substance (or performing a behavior) automatically, without actively deciding to do so.
• Consequences: continuation of use despite negative social, physical and mental consequences.

Many of us can recognize some of these behaviors in our own use of the phone.

Alter, on the other hand, doesn’t see excessive use of cell phones or screens as a true addiction, and both he and Lembke noted that there is disagreement within the health community on the matter. “I don’t think it rises to the level of a medical addiction,” Alter said. “For me it’s more of a cultural malaise than anything else.”

Regardless of how you define it, both experts say there are ways to reduce phone use.

Do a ‘screen fast’

One approach that Lembke has found very effective in his clinical practice is to avoid the use of all screens, not just phones, between a day and a month. This strategy hasn’t been formally studied in patients with excessive screen use in particular, she said, but evidence of its use with other types of addictions, such as alcoholism, suggests it may be effective.

How long you decide to fast will depend on your level of consumption, Lembke said. A normal person might start with a 24-hour fast, for example, while someone with a more severe case of excessive screen use might want to avoid screens for longer. Of course, a true fast may not be practical for many people, whether for work or personal reasons, but the goal is to get as close as possible to complete avoidance.

Lembke cautioned that many people — even those who are not that heavy on screens — may experience withdrawal symptoms such as irritability or insomnia at first, but will start to feel better over time. In his 25 years of caring for patients, Lembke has observed that, at the end of a month of fasting, most of his patients tend to “say that they have less anxiety, less depression, they sleep better, they have more energy, they do more things, and that they can look back and see more clearly how screen use was affecting their lives,” he said. Those who fast for less than a month will still see benefits, she said, though they probably won’t be as dramatic.

After abstaining from screens for a while, he recommends reflecting on how you want your relationship with devices to be in the future.

Set rules around the daily use of your cell phone

In addition to a screen fast, Lembke and Alter recommend finding other, less strict ways to distance yourself from your phone each day. That may mean assigning times of the day or days of the week when the phone is not used at all, such as before and after work. It can also mean leaving the phone in the other room, keeping it out of the bedroom, or putting everyone’s phone in a box outside the kitchen during dinner.

“It sounds trivial, like an old-fashioned analog solution. But we know from decades of psychology that the things closest to us in physical space affect us the most psychologically,” Alter said. “If you allow your phone to accompany you in every experience, you will be attracted to it and use it. Whereas if you can’t physically reach it, you’ll use it less.”

Make your smartphone less attractive

You can also make your phone less visually appealing, by changing the screen to grayscale or turning off notifications, for example. Alter suggested periodically rearranging your phone’s apps so they’re harder to find and less likely to lure you into a pointless loop of checking and rechecking out of habit.

Both experts advised deleting certain types of apps, especially the ones you know you have a hard time avoiding (or if you don’t want to delete those apps, you can move them to the last screen of your phone to make them less accessible).

“Use the apps that enrich your life, that add value and meaning, or that you need for work, not the ones that inadvertently waste your time,” Lembke said. And if the apps that add value to your life are the ones you feel addicted to, Lembke recommends creating a space using the tips above.

“The big question with screens is, ‘What else could I be doing right now? Is there something I could be doing that would be better for me?’” Alter said. “That’s important now more than ever because of the amount of time we’ve been forced to spend on screens during the pandemic.” (I)

annie sneed is a science journalist who has written for Scientific American, Wired, Public Radio International, and Fast Company.