People spend 1.15 billion hours each month on playing mobile games.
Games rank second behind social media activity in terms of time spent on devices according to a survey conducted in 2016.[1]
On average, we spend 2 hours on social media apps per day, which add up to 5 years and 4 months over a lifetime.[2]
In case you’re wondering, you can actually fly to the moon and back to Earth for 32 times with that time!! And it’s not just the time that we’re losing.
Social apps gain millions of dollars from us every day.
Many of us don’t mind spending a dollar or 2 on mobile apps—multiple dollars, on multiple apps. For instance, one of the top-grossing games in the App Store Pokemon Go, earns as much as $2.3 million per day; while another popular game, Candy Crush, makes $1.1 million a day.[3] Now you’re probably a little concerned about the time and money you’ve been spending on apps, so it would be a good idea to look at why this is happening, and what you can do about it.
We spend a lot of time on our mobile because we feel bored easily and our phone is too handy.
Boredom doesn’t make us happy and it’s natural that we want to get rid of it no matter what, and impulsive behaviour, such as playing with the phone, is our way of doing it. Our phone provides us with a comforting escape from boredom—endless scrolling might be mind-numbing but it’s still better than doing nothing, and we just can’t stop. The reason why social media apps seem so attractive is that they give us (a bit of) the excitement we crave when we’re bored. On top of that is their convenience, since we always have our phones nearby and unlocking them only takes 1 second.
But do you know that playing with the phones can’t really kill our boredom?
We thought playing with the phones could keep us busy and happy, but science says the opposite:[4] The more time we spend on mobile apps, the more difficult to resist them. The boredom in us simply will never be killed. Although it is normal for us to reach out to our phones when we feel bored, it’s still possible to avoid the downward spiral. You just need to pay attention to how you spend your time. Here are several tips that can help you detox from social media addiction.
Challenge yourself not to check your phone during idle time.
You can also try to train yourself to be patient. Set some rules for yourself about using social media apps[5]. For instance, challenge yourself to not check your phone when waiting for the bus or queueing up at Starbucks. Be comfortable with a little boredom. It’s just a few minutes, anyway.
Hide your social apps or games in a folder on the last page of your phone, and mute their notifications.
Stopping once you’ve started is so much harder than not starting at all.[6] If you don’t open the app in the first place, you won’t have to worry about it. What you can do is to mute the notifications of your addicted apps, put them into a folder, and drag the folder to the last page of your phone. So when you unlock your phone and arrive on the first page, it’s not so easy to access them. Try to keep the temptations away is a good way to stop yourself from impulsively looking at the apps. Out of sight, out of mind.
Actively explore for more interesting activities that go beyond your phone.
You have to realize that you have a life outside of your Facebook, Instagram, etc., and that Candy Crush is not the only fun thing you can do. Go out with friends and talk to them instead of posting on their Walls; read books instead of checking Instagram stories; or try baking desserts instead of crushing candies…and more to go on the list. When you learn to appreciate and enjoy the interesting things in the real world, you won’t go back to your phone that often any more. Keep in mind that you don’t have to cut mobile apps out of your life entirely. Just be careful why you’re using them. Ask yourself: do I really have fun playing with my phone, or am I just bored? Can I do something else instead and have a great time?
