5 tips for managing mobile phone stress

Did you know that while 60 percent of people think they touch their phone less than 100 times a day, a typical user actually taps, touches, or swipes their phone 2,617 times per day?

If the risks of smartphones remain unchecked, the devices can encroach on our relationships and productivity in the workplace and at home. The mishandling of smartphones can result in:

• Stress: Employees tally an average of eight hours a week answering work-related emails after leaving the office.

• Disengagement: 80 percent of workers think it's wrong to check phones during meetings; 50 percent do it anyway.

• Lessened productivity: 95 percent of people are interrupted over five times per hour.

A recent independent survey conducted by mobile phone recycler and retailer, Envirofone, takes a deep dive into phone use to determine how much stress our phones cause and what the biggest stressors of our phones are..

According to their survey, the five biggest stressors of our phones are:

1. No Wi-Fi

2. Low battery / Phone about to die

3. Too many notifications pinging throughout the day

4. Reading the news

5. Negative comments on your social media posts

The survey found that people between the ages of 16-34 are more likely to feel stressed over their phones than those aged 35 and older.

Worryingly - but perhaps not surprisingly - it found that 35% of 16-24-year-olds check their phones more than 11 times per hour (every 5 minutes) compared to only 4% of the over 55s checking their phone more than 11 times per hour.

The majority of 16-24-year-olds - 93% per cent - said they sleep with their phones in their bedrooms and a third of those are checking their phones more than seven times during the night.

Those figures steadily declined as people got older, although just over half (56%) of 45–54 year olds felt stressed about low Wi-Fi and low battery. Only a third of over 55s felt stressed over having low battery.

“The increase in social media usage, frequency of phone checking and the lack of good quality sleep due to device usage is absolutely something that we all need to pay attention to and take seriously,” said Sarah Tombs, a Registered Therapist and Certified Psychological Coach.

“Usage of digital devices are heavily linked to the physical stress we feel within our bodies. Our ‘fight or flight’ response or ‘stress activation system’ is a biological response to stressors and can be triggered through the constant stream of information received through phone use. Every time we receive notifications, emails, messages, phone calls, comments, and news updates we are continuously overloaded with information and our threat-response system is activated; our bodies feel this on a physiological level.

“Furthermore, the research shows a significant number of people are constantly checking their phones throughout the day and into the night (some, every 5 minutes!) and each time we do this, it can trigger the stress activation system multiple times. This keeps your body on ‘high alert’ mode and your system does not have chance to shut off or stand down.

”This disrupts quality sleep and biologically means that every time someone checks social media, they can have a stress reaction. This behaviour keeps us in a constant state of alertness and impacts our wellbeing over time.   Essentially your body does not get chance to go into ‘rest & repair’ state, making it a challenge for your body to receive the nourishment and healing that’s intended when you go to sleep at night.

Equally, use of social media (along with receiving likes & comments) activates another response within our bodies; the dopamine circuitry reward system. Each time we receive social notifications we get a hit of the ‘feel good’ hormone dopamine which is part of the brain’s reward system. The hit of dopamine we get and the pleasure we feel when we receive a sea of likes and comments conditions us to want to receive more, thus perpetuating the constant phone checking cycle as we seek the next hit of ‘feel good’ hormone.”

Top 5 tips for managing phone stress from Sarah Tombs, Registered Therapist and Certified Psychological Coach

1. Cultivate healthy boundaries with your phone. Create a new folder on your phone for all news, social media, and email apps. This simple technique removes instant app access away from your home screen and will help you begin to create more intention around how you use your phone; you’ll be less likely to be tempted to check and scroll with icon access out of your natural eyeline.

2. Set timers. Many apps allow you to set time usage limits and realising how long you’re spending each day will help you build awareness on over usage.

3. Become mindful. Focus on one thing at a time rather than multitasking. Many people out of habit will be used to using their mobile phone while indulging in their daily needs & activities such as eating, drinking and watching TV. This will start to increase your sense of joy and pleasure associated with other activities rather than those derived from phone use.

4. Morning and night phone tactics. To help ease stress levels and prepare for sleep, switch your phone to aeroplane mode before you get ready for bed and limit screen use to an hour before you go to sleep. If this is too challenging, start by putting your phone away 20 minutes before you sleep and gradually increase this time period the more you become accustomed to this practice.

5. Be intentional with social media. Remember that social media is not real life and often is presented as a ‘highlight reel.’ It can be helpful to keep this at the forefront of our minds when utilising social media and creating intention with how we use the apps. Follow accounts that inspire and help us feel good about ourselves and focus upon everything good within our lives already.