As we make detoxification for alcohol or drugs, today, we need to consider cures to break away from this handy little gadget called smartphone. To begin, you must know the symptoms of smartphone addiction first. Here are some explained!
Symptoms of Smartphone addiction:
Symptoms of smartphone addiction can vary from individual to individual, and may include:
- Anxiety and thoughts turned only to smartphone
- compulsive and excessive use of smartphone
- connection time too long
- Irritability, nervousness or impatience without the smartphone
Once you identify these symptoms, it is now time to look for ways to cure it. Here are some tips to consider:
1. Turn off notifications in the settings of your kids’ smartphone, you can always disable notifications for their different applications. These alerts make them check their phone and surf throughout the day. Most notifications are probably not necessary. So, identify the importatnt ones and turn on sound only for them.
2. Evaluate their actual use with an app…! There are many applications that report the number of times and the time your kids spend on each different application, with the sometimes maddening count the total time spent on the phone every day. So, pick one such app and calculate their actual usage time yourself. One app recommended for this is FamilyTime app. It lets you check app usage frequency while giving you the app usage log. As a bonus, you can also blacklist unwanted or most used apps if you want.
3. Set daily time slots without phone: Your kids don’t need their phone in the bathroom, not on table or in their pockets while playing. So, the best way to check is to set clear rules to discipline them. You can categorically forbid them from touching the phone several times a day during periods of longer and longer. And if this doesn’t help, you can seek help from screen time app that lets you put screen lock anytime or schedule auto-screen locks for any given time interval such as bed time, homework time or during study hours etc. In the above paragraph, I just spoke about a digital app for evaluating the time spent. If you use that app, You get the screen limiting functionality with it.
Doesn’t it sound like a wish coming true? The digital tools now simplify parenting so get hold of one app such as FamilyTime and make your parenting stress free.
4. Give them technological breaks: For real freaks it is recommended that you ask your kid to “Train their brain to gradually make technology breaks. They can start by browsing phone for a minute and check SMS, calls, social networks etc. Then turn it off and drop it fifteen minutes, screen against the table.” This position reminds your brain not to distribute stress and anxiety neurotransmitters related to the device screen. The purpose of the operation is to regain control.
5. Seek Professional Help: If all these tricks don’t help, go for professional help. There are doctors and institutes that help kids off their screens without great trouble.