Don’t Miss the Most Important Notification…From Your Mental Health
How Technology Affects Mental Health and What to Do About It
By Mindy Arndt, wellness coordinator at Network Health
4/27/2022
It’s not hard to remember a time when going somewhere meant you were unreachable. While the ability to call, text, email, update social media and even order products on the go has its benefits, many of us feel overconnected and that there is an expectation to be available 24 hours a day.
A recently recognized form of stress, this constant connectedness has only become a widespread mental health issue within the last ten years, following the mass adoption of smartphones in the early 2010s.
Is staying connected all the time healthy?
Beyond being able to look up a curiosity on the go or pull that photo you want to show a coworker down from the cloud, this hyperconnectivity does have some benefits. Free GPS apps, for instance, mean getting lost is nearly a thing of the past.
Additionally, any danger or harm encountered can be quickly countered with an emergency services call from seemingly wherever.
Because there are advantages to this brave new world, health experts don’t consider smartphones a net negative. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t potentially severe drawbacks that could lead to major mental health issues if left unchecked.
For example, social media allows your entire social network to curate what you see of their life, which can lead to feelings of insecurity or inadequacy. This is especially pronounced among adolescents and teenagers who are already working with a wide variety of social and emotional uncertainty as their brains and self-images develop.
The pressure to match the glossy, curated social media posts and stories extends beyond friends too. Influencer culture among younger people has taken the fabulous lifestyles of the rich and famous and packaged them in a way that feels accessible, giving the false impression that this sort of life is possible if you just “hustle” enough.
You can see where all of this can be detrimental to anybody’s mental health, much less that of a person who has not had the space and time to create their own sense of self-assuredness in the world.
What about ringxiety?
If you’ve ever felt your phone or smartwatch buzz in your pocket or on your wrist, only to see that there was no actual notification, you’ve experienced ringxiety. Ringxiety is when you feel like your phone is ringing or vibrating or pulsing in your pocket, only to discover it’s not. It can even happen when our phone is not in our pocket.
Added to the dictionary in 2007, ringxiety is a term coined by a doctoral student at the California School of Psychology in 2006. It’s a combination of the words “ringing” and “anxiety” and is also known as phantom vibration syndrome.
Even back in 2006, when the best app you could get was a tip calculator and your phone plan charged you by the minute, we were beginning to feel the ever-present awareness of our constant reachability.
Although these lights, sounds and vibrations are much less likely to be your phone ringing in 2022, the disruptive anxiety that somebody is trying to pull your attention away from the moment for any reason—from a coupon offer to a loved one in danger—is far less obsolete than the chunky flip phones on which ringxiety debuted.
If anything, it’s gotten worse. According to customer engagement software manufacturer, CleverTap, the average U.S. smartphone user received 46 push notifications a day in 2021. That’s nearly a buzz, beep or bing every 15 minutes. It’s easy to see why our bodies would interpret random nerve firings as somebody trying to wedge themselves into our consciousness.
Smartphone addiction – a growing problem.
Looking beyond the ways we have adapted to being bombarded by notifications, our technology can negatively impact mental health in another way – addiction.
Baylor University’s Professor James Roberts has studied the way we interface with personal technology and concluded your smartphone can be just as addicting “as drugs or alcohol.”
If you’ve ever felt the panic of leaving home to go across town without your smartphone, the dread of a low battery or even the mood-lifting effect of a like on your social media post, your experience is similar to the way people who are addicted to drugs feel about the subject of their addiction. Just like drugs, the amount of engagement or reward we need to receive the same boost of happiness increases with each hit.
Social media – keep scrolling.
We’re not monsters, however, seeking this dopamine at the cost to our personal lives and relationships. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, especially, have built their entire business on keeping your eyes glued to a screen. They are, first and foremost, advertising platforms.
The algorithms they use that decide what content to show you and in which order are continuously tuned and refined with the goal of more scrolling and more engagement from the platform’s users. Any data you volunteer through your posts or questionnaire answers is similarly used to tune this content and the ads you see.
At the end of the day, it’s possible to engage with social media platforms in a healthy way. The key is recognizing that these platforms are machines designed to turn people looking for connection into people who are viewing hundreds of ads every day.
How can we reduce stress from technology and our smartphones?
Prioritizing mental health can be difficult with a small box in your pocket that is capable of derailing the most earnest and intense efforts to do so. It means acknowledging the countless ways platforms and corporations are working to turn your attention toward them with no regard for users’ mental health.
Here are some ways to be intentional about your mental health as it relates to technology, smartphones and social media.
Use built-in features to limit notifications and app time.
Whether you use iPhone or Android, you can help your digital well-being by respectively using “Do Not Disturb” or “Focus Mode” to help unplug.
iPhone – Do Not Disturb
Apple’s Do Not Disturb mode on the iPhone allows you to take scheduled or ad-hoc breaks from notifications, allowing you to set the apps you want to be silenced and whether certain contacts can still get through.
It’s simple to set up and can be used overnight or during daylight hours when you need time to be in the moment.
Learn how to set up Do Not Disturb on your iPhone by clicking here.
Android – Focus Mode
Similarly, Android offers the ability to silence certain notifications, designated apps and more.
Learn how to set up Focus Mode on your Android smartphone by clicking here.
Screentime settings
In addition to Do Not Disturb and Focus Mode, your iPhone or Android smartphone also allows you set hard limits on the amount of time you can run certain apps. If you know TikTok’s endless cascade of tailored videos is a pitfall, for instance, you can limit the time you’re able to use that app to twenty minutes a day or less.
Learn about screen time limits on iPhone by clicking here.
Learn about screen time limits on Android by clicking here.
While you’ll be able to bypass these limits by entering a passcode or performing a short puzzle, that mental break may allow you the lucidity to move on to something else.
Take a low-tech vacation.
While leaving yourself in a now payphone-less world without any means of contact may not be the best idea (though it’s one we’ve definitely considered), several steps between that and constant notifications via a smartphone or tablet exist.
For instance, you may find yourself drawn to the minimalism of a flip phone. Although you won’t see commercials for these devices anymore and you may have to dig in your provider’s website to find them, all major U.S. carriers still offer these devices, frequently at a significantly lower cost than a smartphone.
Additionally, most flip phones run operating systems that still allow you to stream music and many even have Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions if you do manage to wander off the beaten path.
You may also consider activating an older, lower-tech device for a week or two while you detox and reset.
Time to Log Off, a digital detox program, has several resources aimed at helping fight against smartphone, online and social media addiction using psychiatric-backed tactics and planning.
Learn more by visiting Time to Log Off here.
Uninstall problem apps.
If you’re like us, there are probably one or two apps above all else that hold your attention. Either temporarily or permanently deleting these applications from your smartphone can have a marvelous and transforming effect on your mental health.
Look into professional assistance.
At the end of the day, we are compelled to seek notifications because they soothe us in some way. Likes, follows, shares, etc., all validate the content we’re making or the interactions we’re having in a way our increasingly lonely world is seemingly losing the ability to replicate in person.
This loneliness and sadness can manifest in feeling like we need to seek out any small dose of dopamine, no matter the predatory and addiction-driving nature of the platforms from which we receive it.
At its core, social media addiction and smartphone addiction can be a symptom of mental illness, such as depression or anxiety.
Our scrolling may be a way for us to dissociate from a life we feel is increasingly unmanageable. Similarly, the small doses of validation, combined with the alluring notification sound and icons, may be a way for us to experience small amounts of happiness that has been otherwise difficult to come by.
In such cases, seeking help through therapy from a trusted counselor or psychiatrist will allow you to work on these feelings in a way that is healthy and constructive to future relationships and ambitions, rather than isolating you from them.
If you have questions about how your health plan can assist with mental health, contact us today.
