Are you addicted to your phone?

The invention of smartphones and other devices has given people the ability to access the internet while on the move and at any given time.

It has also helped friends to reconnect and also form new friendships, but then it also has its downsides. One of this is addiction to our phones and devices.

But what is addiction? Dictionary.com defines it as “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming”. In other words, it is the condition of being addicted to a particular activity.

LifeXtra spoke to a few people on the issue and we got very interesting and funny responses from our respondents.

Modeline Chris, the founder of Model Cakes and Event, told LifeXtra “Yes, people tell me that I am addicted to my phone, I can’t help it – social media sites like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram is very important to me because it helps to move my cake business very well and fast.”

Theophilus Femi Alawonde, a student who resides in Ibadan, also said he’s addicted to his phone. “From music, Facebook, WikiHow, Wikipedia and Wikibooks, I am always glued to my phone.”

Abdulateef Salau, an Abuja-based journalist, said that he is not addicted to his phone. He however stated that “he is inseparable from his phone.”

When LifeXtra sought to know how he was able to overcome or not fall into the class of addiction, Salau said “I try to socialize offline. A large number of my interactions are done offline.”

He went further to explain that during his undergraduate days, his research work was about the social media and how it affected academic performance as such it made him cautious.

He said “The fact that I am not very active on social media also helps to curtail my interaction with my phone.”

Salau added that aside from work, anytime he wants to use the social media he “monitors” himself because “addiction to phone eats away precious time meant for other things,” he said.

Another respondent who simply identified herself as Safina says, “I won’t say I am addicted to my phone because there are periods I can do without it, for example, during fasting, I can go all through without it.”

In an article titled “The Phones We Love Too Much” on nytimes, Leslie Alder wrote “We have an intimate relationship with our phones. We sleep with them, eat with them and carry them in our pockets. We check them, on average, 47 times a day.”

Alder added “And we love them for good reason: They tell the weather, the time of day and the steps we’ve taken. They find us dates, entertain us with music and connect us to friends and family. They answer our questions and quell feelings of loneliness and anxiety.”

Suggesting ways phone addiction can be gotten rid of, the article added “Designate ‘no cell’ zones in your home. With your partner, decide which areas of your home, such as the living room and the kitchen, should be technology-free. And consider eliminating phone use in the car so that you can use that time to talk to your partner about whatever is on your mind.”