avatarTim J. Schroeder

Summary

The article outlines three key strategies to combat smartphone addiction by focusing on meaningful activities, physical creations, and real-world social interactions.

Abstract

The author of the article shares personal experience with smartphone overuse and the negative impact it had on their life. Drawing from the book "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport, the author presents three lessons to reduce screen time and enhance life quality. These lessons include engaging in demanding activities rather than passive consumption, creating valuable physical objects, and fostering real-world social interactions. The article emphasizes the importance of these practices in overcoming smartphone addiction and improving one's well-being.

Opinions

  • Passive consumption through smartphones, such as scrolling through social media, is detrimental to real-life relationships and overall life satisfaction.
  • Demanding activities like reading, drawing, and exercising are more beneficial for personal growth than passive smartphone use.
  • The act of creating or fixing things with one's hands is fulfilling and a testament to the human ability to manipulate the physical world.
  • Patience is a virtue that can be learned through activities like planting, which require time and dedication, contrary to the instant gratification provided by smartphones.
  • Social media can hinder genuine human connections by keeping people digitally connected without fostering meaningful interactions.
  • Engaging in structured social activities, such as joining clubs or mentoring, is crucial for maintaining authentic human relationships and should be prioritized over digital connections.
Photo by Creative Christians on Unsplash

3 Sure-Fire Leisure Lessons To Overcome Smartphone Addiction

A couple of months ago, my eyes were glued to my smartphone screen.

After having a rough time in 2023, I found myself looking at my smartphone more than ever. It was awful. No matter, where I was, I had to look up random things, check my messages, and sports stats. I knew it couldn’t go on like that.

It was bad in two ways:

  1. I wasted my precious time and even worse:
  2. At some point in the past, I already knew better.

That’s why I re-read “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport.

It worked. Now, I have less than 1 hour of screen time daily.

Author’s smartphone screen time from last week

Here are his three key takeaways to overcome smartphone addiction.

Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption

It’s easy to fall into the passive consumption trap when you come home tired.

But although it might provide instant gratification, in the long run, it does you more harm than good. To be precise: it’ll cripple your real-life relationships.

In his book, Newport explains that we’re made for real human connections, instead of digital conversations. We’re made to check for cues from the other person when we’re talking to them face-to-face.

Not for mixing up things because our insecurities, made us interpret a text message in the wrong way.

Besides, we get dumb scrolling on social media.

Meaning, that whenever you’d pull out your phone, you can do something demanding instead:

  • Reading
  • Drawing
  • Writing
  • Exercising
  • Debating

Why?

Because even if you’re tired, a demanding activity changes your life for the better. Being glued to your smartphone doesn’t. I can tell from experience.

How?

James Julian just wrote about a simple principle he follows. It goes:

“Easy to do. Easy not to do.”

This holds also true for passive consumption.

It’s easy to hop on Instagram and scroll through your feed for the next two hours. But it’s also easy to grab a nice novel and read for two hours.

Choose demanding over passive.

Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world

It’s amazing what we can achieve working in the digital world.

Just look at the stories of Sam Altman, Tim Denning, and others.

But we’re still physical beings.

Meaning, that we rely on the one true superpower, we have:

Manipulating the physical world.

This sounds like a bad spot for craftsmanship, but:

“Our hands are the best tools.”

Use them for other things than scrolling through feeds or trying to change the order of shiny candies on your smartphone.

Build something out of wood, sit down and repair your vacuum cleaner, or draw something.

My GF and I got into planting. We take care of our green children, foster, water, and spray them, change the soil, do whatever they need.

It’s stupid simple, yet fulfilling.

And it teaches you a virtue, a smartphone never could:

Patience.

We’re used to getting everything on demand, and of course, I like it, too.

It’s handy to order a bottle of vodka when you have a party running, people drink more than they should, and you keep supporting them in doing that. Oops.

But it’s also misleading, when we need to understand it takes a long time to build something meaningful, like a writing career on Medium.

Get your hands dirty and do something meaningful with them.

Seek activities that require real-world, structured, and social interactions

I repeat: we aren’t made for connections on the internet.

We’re made for conversations in real life. To catch the nitty-gritty details of human interactions.

Social media does a great job of hindering that.

Because we stay in touch with people, we once met, but not even DM’ed afterward. I’ve been there, too.

When I traveled solo in Italy for the first time, I came back with a bag full of memories and new connections, I never spoke to again. But I still checked their feeds on Instagram, like a weird digital stalker.

Newport says connections can be useful if you use them as a means to an end of real human conversation.

But if you only collect connections for the sake of it, or even worse: to keep checking on them, you’re doomed.

Instead, focus on the real analog life. Yes, you sigh. Again.

Become part of clubs, or a mentor, host/join board game nights, or help others learn something. We’re supposed to be part of groups.

Socialize regularly in real life.

Overcoming your smartphone addiction is easier than you think if you know where to start:

  • prioritize demanding activities over passive consumption
  • use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world
  • seek activities that require real-world, structured, and social interactions

Thanks for reading.

You like what you read? Please let me know!

Like, comment, leave a message and if you want to read more:

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Digital Minimalism
Life
Life Lessons
Addiction
Personal Growth
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