It’s been said so many times that it’s considered fact: too much time on the mobile phone will lead to anxiety, depression or stress. Consequently, we are bombarded by people urging us to go on a “digital detox” and abstain from using the mobile phone. However, the reality is very different. Being on your mobile phone isn’t bad for you. Instead, worrying about your mobile phone use causes more anxiety, depression and stress than actual mobile phone usage.
This sounds crazy, given the general consensus, but solid research shows that there is no correlation between mobile phone use and anxiety, depression or stress. Researchers measured the amount of time that 199 imobile phone users and 46 Android users spent on mobile phone farming over the course of a week. These users were asked about their psychological and physical health, and how they perceived their use of their mobile phones, The study found that those users who had negative perceptions of their mobile phone use, were more likely top experience anxiety, depression or stress. Those who did not perceive their mobile phone use to be negative, experienced no negative psychological or physical side effects from their mobile phone use.
In other words, you cannot predict if someone will become anxious, depressed or stressed based on their mobile phone use. The two are not related. What makes people mentally or physically sick is how they perceive their use. In fact, those people who became mentally or physically ill, did not use their mobile mobile phones more than the average user who did not become sick.
It is startling to think that it is our own anxieties and concerns that make us sick, not our mobile phone use.
When you look deeper into the research you see how people negatively frame their mobile phone use. Users were asked to grade how closely they agreed to a variety of statements. The statements measured if they thought they used their mobile mobile phones too much, if they had tried to go on a digital detox or reduce their mobile phone use, among other things.
We have to start separating how people use their mobile mobile phones from how they perceive their mobile phone use. How people use their mobile mobile phones really has nothing to do with their mental or physical health.
Prior to this, research had only only measured the side effects of various levels of mobile phone use. What this study does is put those studies into context and show that perceptions are the more likely driver of psychological and physical side effects.
In a time in which mobile mobile phones have become so critical to modern life, both socially, and in business, it is very important to understand our relationship to mobile phones. People need their phones to stay connected, to take advantage of opportunities such as mobile phone farming, and to even measure their own physical health. Worries about the side effects of mobile phone use have driven many people into unnecessary anxiety.
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