24 Jul The True Cost of Excessive Mobile Device Usage

Mobile devices are a great and accessible form of technology, bringing unprecedented tools and capabilities to their users. We use them for a variety of daily tasks, both personal and professional. From mobile banking to report creation, it’s astonishing how powerful a mobile device – like a smartphone – really is.

But with every form of technology there comes a cost, and we don’t mean financial. That’s especially the case for smartphones. Despite their capabilities, smartphones have some unfortunate downfalls that rack up “costs” going beyond money. Attention, productivity, and even safety are serious considerations involving mobile devices. In other words, it’s the real negative cost and something we have to be mindful of.

A Pandora’s Phone of Distractions

There’s no getting around it: a phone is a serious attention thief. Because it can instantly grant access to a plethora of apps, functions, websites, and social media, a cursory glance at a smartphone screen can turn into minutes of fractured concentration and productivity loss.

Concentration is a flow state. It requires active and mindful participation of the individual, especially towards tasks that are work related (office paperwork, answering emails, reports, redundant jobs). Once in that flow state, working on a task is easier. Starting a large, challenging project or work task is often the hardest part, and that’s where the issues of smartphone usage come into play.

Using a smartphone, even temporarily, pulls an individual out of their focused state. The reasons for the distractions vary, but the conclusion is the same: spending several minutes (or longer) on random digital screen. Over time, this can accrue to hours of total phone use. Worsening the problem is the break in concentration. A user has to spend time returning to their focused state, and maintaining that focus increases in difficulty. With potential distractions from a smartphone, productivity loss is all but guaranteed.

Overwhelmed with Alerts

Alerts and notifications also play a massive role in user distractions. Whether from apps, social media, or messages, it creates a conditioning effect where a user is prompted to check the alert. Not only does this continue to distract the user, it bombards them with an overflow of information. News, app deals, updates, social media, and phone reminders are a small handful of the alerts one can receive on their phone.

These alerts create a slow, problematic impact towards concentration, degrading cognitive focus over time. Users are encouraged to absorb info in quick “bites” versus extended periods. Thus, they are indirectly training themselves to only focus on tasks for short-term periods. Or, requiring a “dopamine” hit, aka checking notifications, updates, and/or phone alerts. In a work environment (or even home), getting blasted with phone alerts is distracting and time consuming.

Errors and Inaccuracies

The problems don’t stop at distractions, broken focus, and lost time. The injection of phone use into daily routines – work related or otherwise – cause a buildup of unwanted errors. From reports to emails, phone usage causes a decline in concentration. If a person is checking their phone during work, their concentration is split into two places (or more). This concentration generates errors which require additional time and labor to fix down the line. The more excessive the error, the more problematic it becomes for the organization (or user).

For a company, these errors are costly in the long-term. Time spent fixing errors versus current tasks costs labor, indirect consequences of phone distractions and mobile device usage.

Safety Risks and Dangers

Distractions caused by mobile device usage doesn’t just harm productivity levels. In many cases, it’s a serious safety risk too. For example, mobile phone usage during travel increases the chances of dangerous accidents (indirectly raising insurance costs).

In manufacturing or industrial environments, distractions caused by smartphones readily increases risk of harm to an individual. Anywhere concentration is necessary to accomplish tasks using heavy equipment (or similar), lapses in focus invite serious physical danger. All those same problems discussed regarding distracted focus apply in manufacturing scenarios too.

Heavy Emotional and Mental Costs

All these consequences of lost productivity feed into other deeper systemic issues. Cognitive and emotional health are also directly harmed by excessive mobile device usage.

We mentioned before about cognitive decline, and part of this involves memory. Even after a smartphone is put away, a portion of the brain’s memory is still focused on the device. Over time, this consistently fractures memory and focus eventually leading to extra problems like fatigue. Deep focus is harder to reattain and maintain, lowering work quality overall.

Aggravating mental health is one thing, but excessive phone use also harms our emotional well being too. Phone addiction is an expanding problem, curating a mental feedback loop to check and recheck our screens for updates. This excessive artificial dopamine fix prevents a user from maintaining deep concentration and uninterrupted thought, leading to a decrease in happiness. Furthermore, excessive and extensive smartphone use causes other health issues, ranging from anxiety, increased stress levels, and loss of sleep quality.

It isn’t just causing problems for work tasks, smartphones hinder us on a physiological, emotional, and mental scale.

Deplugging and Destressing

The consequences of excessive mobile device use are impossible to ignore. While useful, extensive nonstop use of a phone hurts us in many ways, fragments our concentration, reduces concentration, and interrupts healthy sleep patterns.

There is no quick-fix policy to alleviate the deeper problems caused by distracting smartphones. Instead, deplugging ourselves from phone use for a short period can address the many issues caused by excessive phone use.

Granted, this is easier said than done. Naturally, many use their mobile devices for work related tasks. Thus, breaking from screens for an extended period proves challenging even when we’re willing to make the necessary changes for our personal health.

But, in the interest of improving concentration, reducing reliance on digital devices, and living without constant “notification anxiety,” there are a few things a user can do. It comes down to planning a sabbatical from digital screens and devices for a period of at least 72 hours.

Doing so is, of course, not easy. We’re used to cycling through curated and instant content via smartphones (or other mobile devices) at a constant rate. Therefore, it’s not easy to deplug and “cold turkey” our use of smartphones. The benefits, though, are worthwhile, capable of improving mental acuity and sleep quality.

To do so, consider the following methods:

• Plan out your “sabbatical,” where you avoid any and all screens for a concentrated 72 hour period. That means avoiding screens, computer devices, and smartphones for casual use.
• Make looking at screens less rewarding. Greyscaling your screen with extensions/addons can lower the subtle dopamine reward you receive when browsing screens.
• Place phones and mobile technological devices outside of certain spaces (like the bedroom).

During that extended period, you’ll get used to “boredom” and bored thoughts. Often we ignore these mental interrogations or moments because we’re used to filling every second of the day with distractions. However, that’s not normal or healthy for our well being and ultimately what leads to fractured concentration – the true cost of mobile device usage.

For other assistance and tips, reach out to Bytagig today.

Share this post: