Fact Checked

Feeling More Stress and

Anxiety? Your
Smartphone May Be to
Blame
Being constantly connected to a steady stream of updates, messages, and
Share on Pin terest

news through our smartphones can leave us feeling even more stressed out
and anxious at the end of the day. Cavan Images/Getty Images

 Experts say the barrage of text alerts and our constant social
media engagement on our smartphones can take a toll on our
mental and emotional health.
 From the COVID-19 pandemic to the 2020 election, our cellphones
can act as a direct conduit to anxiety with a stream of upsetting
information at a very stressful time.
 They suggest adopting practices in our daily routine to put our
phones away and take a breather.
It’s late at night, you should be getting ready to fall asleep, but instead you’re
up, phone in hand, doomscrolling through your social media feeds.

Or, take this one: You’re heading out for a midday walk, and instead of taking
a break from the problems of the world, you’re constantly alert, getting text
notifications from friends and news updates on everything from COVID-
19 to politics.

It seems impossible to peel our eyes away from our phones.

Yes, our phones are a near-indispensable, universal presence in our daily lives.
But how is this constant onslaught of information affecting our mental health?
During the already anxious time we’re all living in, are our cellphones making
our stress worse?

Experts say the barrage of text alerts and our constant social media
engagement on our smartphones can take a mental and emotional toll.

In fact, it might be a good idea to adopt practices in our daily routine to put
that phone away and take a breather.

How our phones increase our

stress levels
Yamalis Díaz, PhD, a clinical assistant professor in the department of child and
adolescent psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told Healthline
that, anecdotally, she and her colleagues have seen record numbers of visits
this year to NYU’s child study center for mental health issues.

Whether you’re an adult or a child, she said 2020 has been a year marked by
an unusual combination of stressors for many people.

The COVID-19 pandemic reoriented how we live our day-to-day lives.

Coupled with the charged political climate that culminated in this month’s
presidential election, the pandemic has made this a stressful time quite unlike
any other in recent memory.

In many ways, our phones and other devices are something of a conduit for
this stress. Díaz said that our “stress activation system” (what’s often called
our “fight or flight” system) is a very real biological process.
This is where our brains are inclined to look for threats in the surrounding
environment, spot them, and then send signals throughout our bodies that we
need to prepare for those threats.

Getting a stream of upsetting notifications through our phones can activate

this response.

“Adrenaline, stress hormones like cortisol, are activated. They make us ready
to respond to a threat,” Díaz said. “This overload of information, especially
stressful information, basically activates that system more often and keeps it
more active.”

This threat-response system basically is always on “high alert” with our

regular phone check-ins.

“It doesn’t bother shutting off if we are constantly receiving notifications or

reading and watching the news, with pings, and dings, and emails,” she said.
“We can have a stress reaction to that notification or information and on a
physiological level, it can all activate our stress system throughout the day.”

A ‘constant influx of information’

Maria Mouratidis, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist at The Retreat at
Sheppard Pratt, a psychiatric hospital in the Baltimore, Maryland, suburb of
Towson, told Healthline, and echoed Díaz, that this “constant influx of
information” can increase our stress and anxiety.

“Having devices literally in our hands all of the time keeps us in a state of
alertness that can be draining over time,” she said. “The amount and type of
information is not often filtered for urgency or importance.”
Mouratidis added that anxiety is often “reinforced by trying to deal with
uncertainty by checking” your phone. Social media also adds its own unique
level of anxiety given that it can force you to compare yourself to others, which
can increase feelings of depression.

“Focusing on phones can be a way of avoiding one’s thoughts, feelings, and

relationships,” she said. “Avoiding difficult feelings or relationships can
contribute to mental health and addiction problems.”

Díaz said that smartphone and tech developers clearly “knew what they were
doing” when they “created things like ‘likes’ and notifications — all things that
activate our dopamine circuitry reward system.”

She explained that this makes us feel a sense of pleasure when something is
exciting or interesting. It keeps us wanting to go back for more. With constant
social media and news updates, we’re conditioned over time to have that
need to constantly tap into that dopamine circuitry.

“Our brains are constantly ‘on,’ either through our pleasure center or our
stress reaction center,” Díaz said.

As a result, it’s hard for us to just relax. If we’re at dinner and have our phone
near us, we quickly look to see what that latest alert is telling us. If we’re about
to sleep, it’s hard to power our brain down if we’ve just been checking election
news on Twitter.

This can disrupt our sleep patterns and elevate our depression and anxiety
levels. It can be disruptive to functioning well in daily life.

Ways to manage this phone-

induced stress and anxiety
“Technology is a tool. It is important to decide what type of relationship you
want to have with your technology,” Mouratidis said. “Phones and alerts are
stimuli. You have choices about how and when to respond to stimuli. Not
every stimulus needs a response or a response right now.”

She said there’s growing evidence that using video conferencing platforms
like Zoom “can contribute to brain fatigue for a range of neurological reasons.”

All of these unyielding interactions with social media can contribute to our
depression, anxiety and interpersonal conflicts, Mouratidis added.

What are some strategies to combat this?

For one, she suggested limiting technology use overall. Not every task in your
day needs to revolve around your phone. Read a book, or instead of looking
at social media or scrolling through the news, use your phone to call a loved
one or a friend.

She also suggested turning off notifications from your social media and email
accounts.

If you do use these platforms, try to steer clear of arguments or debates with
people online. It also might be a good idea to set designated times in your day
to check email or Facebook on your phone. She also emphasized the regular
recommended phone and tech break of 1 hour before bed.

“Many apps have features where you can limit the amount of time you can
spend using it. While it is true that you can override the limit, at least you are
doing it intentionally,” Mouratidis said.

She also recommended that you “clean up” your social media feeds, and
follow a wide range of pages and individuals so that you can engage with
pleasant events and updates beyond more upsetting content.
If you want to stay abreast of what’s going on, she said some pages,
websites, and email newsletters provide a “digested version of information”
with quick summaries of what’s going on during the day. That way, you can
stay on top of the news one time rather than consistently checking in
throughout the day.

“Not every stimulus demands or deserves a response,” Mouratidis added.

“When you choose to respond, do it when you have set time aside to
respond.”

Díaz added that modern life has made it hard to always adhere to these kinds
of recommendations.

For instance, while the common recommendation is to stay away from

technology an hour before bedtime, she said she doesn’t know “any adults or
kids or teenagers” who unplug for a full hour before bed.

She said to try to set a goal of 15 minutes before bed if an hour is too hard.
Similarly, in the early morning, many of us tend to immediately look to our
phones or tablets to get caught up on what we missed overnight.

Díaz stressed perhaps delaying that urge for a bit. Doing some early morning
exercises or giving yourself just a little breather instead can go a long way so
that you don’t begin your day at elevated stress from the long list of
notifications that you missed.

She said it’s important to be very intentional about approaching your phones
and devices in a way that’s more conducive to taking care of your mental
health. Set aside specific moments both for looking at your phone and putting
it aside.

Díaz said it’s also important to pinpoint for yourself exactly when and how
stimuli from your phone is affecting your stress levels. Knowing what kinds of
information or announcements are specifically triggering for your stress levels
is important so that you can be sure to avoid them in the future.

If you find yourself getting particularly agitated, then unplug for a bit and walk
away from your device.

Díaz said she teaches this “regulation stress management process” to

everyone from 6-year-olds to medical residents. It revolves around what she
calls the “three R’s”:

 Recognize what’s causing stress in the first place.

 Redirect it by either moving away from it or shutting the phone off for 5
minutes.
 Resolve it by moving on to whatever is next. That might even be
returning to the email or social media post that you needed to set aside.
Find a way to take the temperature down a bit and reorient yourself.

Weak divisions between our lives

and technology
There’s no doubt that in 2020, technology has become an increasingly
indispensable resource, Mouratidis said. Technology has preserved our ability
to work from home and kept us in touch with loved ones while sheltering
during the pandemic.

But technology can also force us to move beyond healthy communications,

relying on screens rather than interpersonal connections.
“There are many research questions related to the impact of the pandemic on
mental health. Future research will demonstrate what impact technology has
had on social and cognitive functions,” Mouratidis added.

Díaz said the pandemic has already exacerbated our “already murky” work-life
balance, at least in the United States.

We’re now getting up earlier to get started on work, continuing on later, taking
fewer breaks. The division between home and the workplace has vanished
completely. She said this means a division between ourselves and technology
has dissolved as well.

It’s important not to fall into what Díaz said is a “rabbit hole of information”
where you go “almost into a time warp, where you’re reading a Wikipedia
page and then go to Facebook and then suddenly realize you’ve lost an hour
of your day.”

It’s necessary we figure out how to restore balance in the way we integrate
technology in our lives, Díaz said.

“It has real implications for our mental health,” she said.

Compulsively Check Your

Smartphone? Knowing
Why Can Help You Stop
New research highlights the different triggers that
may cause you to compulsively check your
smartphone and offers suggestions that may help
you kick the habit.
According to experts, it’s not your smartphone that drives your compulsive
Share on Pin terest

behavior to check it, it’s specific apps on it. Getty Images

Everywhere you look, people are checking their smartphone with great
frequency — and not just teens and college students.

For some, smartphone behavior has become compulsive, with negative

effects on their lives.

Scientists at the University of Washington (UW) found a series of triggers,

shared by all age groups, that initiated and ended habitual smartphone use.

The researchers also investigated solutions smartphone users created to curb

an undesirable level of use.

The team presented its findings May 7 at the ACM CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Our findings primarily target designers, helping them understand what makes
digital experiences meaningful for people. What we learned also shows that
designing apps that are easy to pick up and put down at will is better for users
than combating attention-grabbing apps with lockout mechanisms,” Alexis
Hiniker, PhD, co-author of the study, told Healthline.

Hiniker is also an assistant professor in the Information School at the

University of Washington who specializes in human-computer interaction.
She’s also the director of the UW User Empowerment Lab.

What the study found

“Our findings also describe in detail what compulsive phone use is like in the
moment, the factors that trigger it, and the factors that help users break out of
that cycle,” Hiniker said.

Hiniker explains her study began when she and her colleagues listened to
people talk about their frustrations with the way they interacted with their
smartphones.

However, all of those interviewed told of phone experiences that had personal
and persistent meaning.

“That is very motivating for me,” she said. “The solution is not to get rid of this
technology; it provides enormous value. So, the question is, how do we
support that value without bringing along all the baggage?”

In late 2017 and early 2018, Hiniker and her team interviewed 39 Seattle-area
smartphone users in three groups between the ages of 14 and 64: high school
and college students and adults with college degrees. (Thirty-nine people is a
large sample for the type of in-depth, qualitative work she and her team
conducted, she says.)

The researchers interviewed the participants, asking them questions about

which of the apps on their phone were most likely to lead to compulsive
behavior.

“Many participants cited social media apps as experiences they turned to

compulsively,” Hiniker said. “But a lot of others came up as well: casual
games, YouTube, email, and text messaging.”

What triggers compulsive phone

use?
Interviewees revealed four common triggers for compulsive use: unoccupied
moments, such as waiting to meet a friend; before or during tedious and
repetitive tasks; socially awkward situations; or waiting for an anticipated
message or notification.

Participants also reported common triggers that ended their compulsive phone
use: competing demands from the real world, such as meeting up with a friend
or needing to drive somewhere; the realization that they had been on their
phone for a half-hour; and noticing content they’d already seen.

The team was surprised to find that triggers were the same across age
groups.

“We were most struck by how similar people’s behaviors were, regardless of
age,” Hiniker said. “Although high school students were more likely to talk
about using their phones as cover for awkward situations, most of the themes
we saw cut across age groups.”

Previous research highlights

triggers for compulsive phone
use, too
Larry Rosen, PhD, also studies compulsive smartphone use and has
discovered positive ways to change user behavior.

Rosen is professor emeritus and former chair of the psychology department at

California State University, Dominguez Hills. A research psychologist and
computer educator, he’s recognized as an international expert in the
psychology of technology.
In 2016, Rosen began conducting studies with 375 college students and 75
high school students.

Rosen also learned that some people check their phones often out of
boredom.

Researchers call this “nomophobia” — a combination of the words no, mobile,

and phobia — defined as fear of being without your phone. This phenomenon
is also called FOMO, or fear of missing out or not being connected. (Teens
spent the bulk of their time on social media, he says.)

In fact, some of Rosen’s study participants reported that they got up in the
middle of the night to check their phones.

Three-quarters of his participants said they left their phones on ring or vibrate
to see if any messages would come in.

Rosen says the anxiety of getting up to check your phone can affect your
health, as it leads directly to getting a bad night’s sleep.

So, how can people kick the

habit?
Rosen created lists of strategies for his student participants. He offered them
four categories of ways to make changes to their phones, or to use their
phones in unique ways.

The categories were communication, focus and attention, enhanced sleep,

and enhanced well-being. The goal was to enhance their smartphone
experience.
To improve sleep, Rosen told his participants to set their phones on gray
screen at night, which removes all colors.

“We told them to tell their phones to forget their passwords and to take their
phones out of the bedroom an hour before they go to sleep,” he said. “We
also gave them alternatives. Use a meditation app to help them relax, or
select ‘Do Not Disturb’ for 30 minutes so they could concentrate on their
studies. Lots of them used Night Shift to switch off blue light on their phones.

“I asked them to do this for only three weeks. Then, I asked them to turn in a
paper about their minutes usage and unlocks. I asked, ‘How did it go?’ Some
people even sent me screenshots of their screen data. A lot of them said,
‘Hey, I’m going to keep doing this. It made positive changes in my life,’” he
said.

Of Rosen’s 375 participants, 200 said the suggested changes in use freed up
a lot of their time each day.

Hiniker’s team asked their participants to identify an aspect of their behavior

they wanted to change and to draw an idea of how their phone could help
them achieve it.

Many sketched a lockout mechanism that would prevent them from using their
phones for a specified period. Participants, however, admitted that although
they felt bad about their behavior, they were ambivalent about using their
proposed solutions.

This finding indicated a subtler relationship with smartphones.

“If the phone weren’t valuable at all, then sure, the lockout mechanism would
work great,” Hiniker said. “We could just stop having phones, and the problem
would be solved. But that’s not really the case.”
Instead, the team discovered that participants found meaning when apps
connected them with the real world and enhanced their relationships with
friends and family — meaningful experiences that transcended the moment of
use.

It’s not the phone that drives

compulsive behavior, it’s the apps
One scientist says it’s not smartphones that are the problem but the apps we
use.

“Individuals are no more addicted to smartphones than alcoholics are addicted

to bottles,” Mark Griffiths, PhD, told Healthline. A distinguished professor of
behavioral addiction at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in England, he’s
also the director of the International Gaming Research Unit of the NTU
Psychology Department.

“For the very small minority that have problematic smartphone use, they have
addictions on the smartphone, not to it. It is the applications on smartphones
that can prove troublesome rather than the phone itself,” he said.

Most studies that examine smartphone addiction really examine social media
addiction, he says. Social networking applications, rather than gambling or
gaming apps, tend to take up the most time.

“Most news stories about ‘smartphone addicts’ are actually about habitual
use,” he said.

Such use may have problematic elements that might have an impact on the
individual’s education and/or occupation in terms of decreased productivity or
impact on relationships by ignoring their loved ones. “But this is not addiction,”
Griffiths said.

Hiniker says people can do many small things to bring their own behaviors in
line with their intentions.

The biggest change will come from new design approaches, which are
already being developed.

“The best thing people can do is demand better experiences from developers
and vote with their dollar,” she said. “Use apps that make it easy to engage in
ways you feel good about.”

As much as I want to deny it, the truth is I’m totally dependent on my phone.

From Googling trivia and looking up directions to reading the news and texting
my partner to ask what’s for dinner, I have my phone in my hands constantly.

It’s the one tool I rely on all day long to help me with a range of useful — and
sometimes not-so-useful — tasks.

A few months ago, I began to notice an empty feeling whenever I finished

another fruitless scroll through my social media feeds. I’d lost a couple of
hours with nothing to show for it, and the deadlines for the work I was
supposed to be doing loomed ever closer.

The empty feeling began to grow in momentum until I was finally able to put
my finger on it: anxiety. To be more accurate, I was experiencing phone
anxiety.

What is phone anxiety?

Modern technology has revolutionized the way we engage and interact with
one another. Never have we been able to be so connected, to share the
moments of our lives with not just our close loved ones but anyone on the
planet.

As with anything this exciting, there are often downsides.

Numerous psychologists have reported the damaging effects of obsessive

mobile phone use on the mental well-being of young people. This includes a
variety of studies reporting on the increase in insomniaTrusted
Source, depressionTrusted Source, low self-esteemTrusted Source, and
even suicidal thoughtsTrusted Source linked to excessive mobile phone use.

But it’s not just young people who fall victim to these feelings.

To learn more, I spoke with Shelby Thomas, a social worker, mental health
advocate, and the founder of ReMe, a resource to help people cultivate
healthy relationships with social media and their phones.

“We are so used to having our phones in hand since their usage has become
embedded in many aspects of society. We’re expected to be accessible at all
times,” Thomas says. “Social media use has become a staple, appealing to
our natural human desire to stay connected with others.”

Our phones connect us — but according to some research, they may also
be addictive.

“Features such as ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons provide a sense of approval and
validation that is literally addicting, while ‘targeted ads’ and ‘suggested
accounts to follow’ ensure that our interest is always peaked,” Thomas says.

Phone anxiety happens when we turn to our phones as a form of distraction.

They can even be an escape from anxious feelings in other areas of our lives.
I discovered that when I experience phone anxiety, I’m not consciously
thinking about why I’m turning to my phone. As a consequence, I fall into the
trap of consuming content that’s heavily filtered and perfected.

In return, I experience an additional anxiety spike as my comparison

tendencies go into overdrive.

“While turning our attention away from stressful thoughts and stimuli can be a
helpful mental health intervention, on its own there is nothing being done to
address the root cause of the symptoms,” says Thomas. “Even more
distressing, anxiety symptoms are greatly exacerbated by feelings of
inadequacy that arise when viewing the curated, edited, and filtered lives of
others.”

The irony is that we’re often turning to our phones to ease our anxiety, only to
be consuming content that spikes it back up. And the cycle continues.

Ready to say goodbye to phone anxiety? Try the seven tips below to kick it to
the curb.

1. Take a clean break

Something that’s helped me get a better handle on phone anxiety is to step
away from my phone entirely.

Whether it was just one day off or a whole week without my phone, removing
my attachment to my device helped provide a clearer picture of how it disrupts
my emotional well-being. It also enabled me to put more proactive strategies
in place.
2. Do a digital cleanup
When was the last time you did a cleanup of all the apps and extras you have
on your phone? I’m willing to bet there’s a few on there you don’t really need.

Reducing my digital clutter helped me create an interface on my phone that

looks and feels clean. This reduces distraction and time spent finding apps,
plus makes using my phone more streamlined.

That means when I do pick it up, I don’t spend a second longer using it than I
need to.

3. Create boundaries
Creating some digital boundaries has helped me ease my addiction to my
phone and reduce the associated anxiety.

For example, I don’t look at my phone for at least an hour before going to bed.
I also make sure my phone isn’t on my bedside table, so it’s not the first thing I
turn to in the morning.

I keep track of my daily usage to help me stay aware of what my thumbs are
doing. On most phones, you can check this information in your settings, or
use an app like Digitox or Space.

4. Prioritize
What do you keep wishing you had more time for?
At the start of each week, I reflect on this question and make a list in my
notebook. When I feel the itch to pick up my phone for a distraction, I choose
an item from my list instead.

Whether it’s journaling, doing yoga, learning to code, or practicing guitar, we

all have little passions we wish we could dedicate more time to.

Make your phone boring by making these things your priority.

5. Engage purposefully
“There are many apps and accounts that promote mental health development
and can help you manage your symptoms,” says Shelby.

Instead of mindless scrolling or time-sucking apps, find the ones that help you
combat your anxiety rather than add to it.

Headspace and Calm are two popular apps I personally recommend, but there

are plenty out there. Find the ones that work for you.

6. Make a ‘happy space’

For many of us, turning to our phones as a distraction is now an ingrained
habit that can be hard to break.

What’s been helpful for me in combating phone anxiety is creating a space on

my phone that helps me to feel good rather than anxious. This includes a
photo album filled with pictures of my favorite things, loved ones, and
motivational images or quotes.
If I do get sucked into a mindless scroll, I catch myself and flip to this space on
my phone instead. This way I can put my phone away feeling positive
and motivated, rather than depleted.

7. Unfollow liberally
If certain accounts, websites, or people only make you feel worse about
yourself, you don’t have to engage with them.

“Be mindful of what you are consuming. If you notice that the content you
follow is causing your anxiety to spike, you reserve the right to turn your
attention elsewhere,” says Shelby. “There is an ‘unfollow’ button for a reason!”

If it doesn’t feel good, you don’t have to follow it.

The right support

If anxiety is a larger part of your life outside of your phone, Shelby says it’s
also important to make sure you’re getting the right levels of support.

“Exercise, eating healthy foods, speaking with loved ones, and finding a
therapist are all amazing resources and total game-changers when it comes
to anxiety — none of which occur during a social media scroll,” she says.

At the end of the day, our phones are just that: phones. The only way they can
make us feel anything is by how we use them. We can decide what content
we allow into our lives.
As I’ve become more conscious about my phone, I’ve found more moments
of gratitude and positivity in my life that aren’t stolen away through negative
online comparisons.

Phone anxiety doesn’t have to be just another part of your life. You can stop
the scroll and free up your mental space.

Elaine Mead is an educator, writer, and psychologist-in-training, currently

based in Hobart, Tasmania. She’s passionately curious about the ways we
can use our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves,
and she’s obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You
can find her on Twitter.

ADVERTISEMENT

Last medically reviewed on August 13, 2020