You could have a smartphone addiction without knowing; Discover the signs and symptoms

You may constantly be checking your phone in church, class, at the workplace or when you are on the go. Even when you are in the company of your friends having a wonderful conversation, you still have that strong urge to fidget with your phone.

Watch it! You may have a smartphone addiction.

Also known as “nomophobia” (the fear of being without a mobile phone), smartphone addiction is rising among users.

The versatile nature of smartphones makes them very useful on one side, and highly addictive on the other.

From checking the time on your phone to checking recipes to using social media et al., it gets easier to be addicted to a smartphone once you own one and have a lot of applications on it. It becomes a part of you, and you become very restless when it’s out of your reach. When it’s within reach too, you are filled with an obsession to always check it up.

Smartphone addiction can draw you away from friends and lose the sense of physical connections and interactions. It can lead to broken homes, and loss of concentration and it can affect productivity negatively.

But how does it all start?

Causes of Smartphone Addiction

Causes of smartphone addiction include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Having so many applications on your smartphone will give you a reason to check it constantly. The more apps you have, the more notifications you get and the more notifications you get, the more you need to check your phone.
• Loneliness is the cause of a lot of addictions. People are gradually losing a sense of belonging in society and in their phones, they find friends, playmates and lovers.

Maybe you’re addicted, or perhaps you know someone who is.

Symptoms of Smartphone Addiction

• Phantom Vibration: Sometimes, you are very sure that your phone has vibrated but you check only to see that your imaginations have reached another level and that your phone hasn’t vibrated.
• A feeling of anxiety when your phone is not in your possession
• You’re lost between two worlds: the world of your smartphone and the physical world. What was the last thing the pastor said? You did not hear that, right? Yes, it’s because you were using your phone when he was preaching.
• You don’t notice the person next to you.

Smartphones, like fire, are very good servants but bad masters. Getting addicted to them can make you lose a lot including a job and relationships.

source https://www.jbklutse.com/smartphone-addiction-causes-effects/