Nearly two decades after the advent of smartphones, society is grappling with a problem that has gotten worse over time: People love their phones so much they can’t put them down.
Citing lower academic performance from digital distraction, schools around the world are banning these devices from classrooms. Thousands of lawsuits have accused tech companies of designing phone apps to be addictive, including a recent case in California where a jury found Meta and Google liable for causing the damage. Widespread interest in phone addiction has even helped usher in a “dumbphone” renaissance, with people choosing minimalist phones to escape our app-obsessed, brain-rotting culture.
And yet, as much as older adults complain that today’s youth are glued to screens, few realize that they, too, are part of the problem. Parents who try to enforce screen time rules on their children often fail to enforce similar restrictions on themselves. (It turns out that counting hours of screen time isn’t a great solution anyway, and there are more useful steps.) So the scrolling continues.
But enough about our problems. What are the solutions? I interviewed experts, including professors, who offered research-backed techniques for reducing problematic phone use. They suggested remedial measures such as developing a media consumption plan for the entire family and implementing screen-free zones throughout the home.
Here’s what to know.
Assess the problem.
First, it’s important to assess whether you or your child are simply a person who uses the phone a lot, or a person with behaviors that can be considered addictive.
Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, drew a parallel with substance abuse. Many people enjoy occasional drinking, but this behavior becomes problematic when it starts to interfere with their social life, affect their relationships or harm their work.
The same types of red flags can apply to phone use. If a person spends most of their time browsing social media apps instead of making friends, this could be a sign of a problem with the phone. Or if your child’s grades are slipping because they’re surfing social media instead of studying, it might be time to consider an intervention.
Come up with a family media plan.
As is often the case, domestic behavior begins with the adults in the room.
One study, led by Dr. Nagata, found that higher media use among parents was associated with more problematic phone use in their teenage children. And younger people who appeared to be addicted to their phones had increased health problems: they were more likely to show symptoms of depression, attention deficit disorder, suicidal behavior and sleep disorders.
On the other hand, studies also found that problematic phone use among younger people was significantly reduced when parents set limits on family phone use in certain situations, such as during sleep and meals, said Dr. Nagata. Children slept better when phones were out of the bedroom and were less likely to binge eat when the devices were out of the dining room.
“It’s important for parents to practice what they preach,” said Dr. Nagata. “If you make rules about phones at the dinner table, you have to follow them.”
So come up with a family media plan. It can be a dynamic plan that changes throughout the week. For example, the rules could be stricter on weekdays – no phones at the dinner table on school days – but relaxed on weekends to allow teenagers to plan how to go out with friends.
Coming up with a robust family media plan is easier said than done, as adults usually struggle with balancing home life with the demands of the office. Dr. Nagata admitted that if he had to break his own rule and use his phone at the dinner table, he would first tell his family that he had a work emergency.
Think less about time and more about content.
For most of the smartphone era, phone users focused on screen time—hours spent on their devices—as the metric that determined whether they were addicted. But academics now generally agree that screen time is an outdated concept because not all screen time is the same: a person can spend many hours a day writing work-related messages or reading a book on the phone – tasks that are not problematic.
Cal Newport, professor of computer science at Georgetown University, who wrote several books on minimizing digital distractionsuggested thinking about digital content much like food. Social media apps like Instagram and TikTok, which involve endlessly scrolling through random short videos, could be considered junk food designed to be addictive.
Disabling these apps should be a priority before measuring your phone minutes.
“It’s OK to think of it as the Doritos or Oreos of digital content and just say, ‘I’m an adult, I don’t need this stuff,'” said Dr. Newport.
Parents may also consider this approach when devising phone rules for their children, Dr. Newport. While current consensus favors waiting for teenagers to get their first phone until high school, Dr. Newport suggests delaying access to social media until the second half of middle school, when it’s more developmentally appropriate as children’s brains mature to better regulate their emotions.
Replace scrolling with a healthier activity.
For people who limit their phone use, the hardest part is figuring out what to do instead, especially when everyone around them is seemingly glued to their screens.
Jenny Odell, Oakland, California, artist who wrote “How to do nothing,” a book about resistance to the attention economy, suggested activities that counteract the negative consequences of excessive phone use, including social harm.
She recalled volunteering at a festival in February in Berkeley, California, where community members showed people how to repair items. One booth taught people how to sew, and a group of high school students stuck around for hours learning different ways to work with their hands.
“I find there’s a weird gap between Gen Z people who are so addicted to their phones and people who are so purposeful, looking for these other things,” Ms. Odell said.
“I don’t know what it’s about,” she added. “Maybe it’s the age they got the phone.
