“We don’t just use our smartphones for everything – we rely on them”
-Brian Scudamore
How Addiction Develops
Smartphone addiction is a modern day phenomena that has a constantly growing impact. Individuals can become addicted to their smartphones without even realizing. As a higher percentage of the population is obtaining smartphones, the individuals that don’t own smartphones appear to be at a disadvantage, as they don’t have access to mobile technology that solves common issues. In other posts discussing this topic, such as the Forbes post, “The Truth About Smartphone Addiction And How To Beat It”, by Brian Scudamore”, people have explained how humans are naturally prone to distractions, and how smartphones provide many distractions. Posts have discussed how in the past, people have let themselves become bored and solve this problem by star gazing or walking around town. However, the smartphone allows for distractions to be in your hand constantly, causing people never be completely bored. Smartphones can be used not only for communication, but almost any task. Individuals claim that since smartphones are versatile and can be used for everything, they are addicting. However, while these claims are true, I believe the true addicting part comes from repetitive use. The addiction stems from smartphones providing access to everyday chores, and the individuals constantly using them to accomplish these tasks. When an individual uses their smartphones to complete these tasks, individuals become addicted, not because of their access to smartphones, but rather the fact that they repeatedly use their smartphones and forget how to accomplish the tasks without them. Accomplishing the tasks with your smartphone efficiently sends a “feel good” chemical to your brain. The more you perform these activities with smartphones, the more your brain craves it. The overuse of technology causes addiction, and individuals should be aware of the consequences.
Breaking Addiction Through Boredom
People have been constantly talking about how smartphones are addicting, and what the effects of addiction are. A unresolved conversation is how to break the addiction. In previous posts, such as “I kicked my smartphone addiction by retraining my brain to enjoy being bored”, by Jordan Rosenfeld, individuals have discussed that breaking the addiction can be as simple as allowing your mind to enjoy being bored. The feeling of boredom is an essential instinct, as it allows us to get to know ourselves. Boredom is a cue that something needs to change. If we allow phones to remove boredom, we can miss important observations on life. A gruesome job may not feel as horrible due to smartphones being able to distract you, but you won’t realize that you should be changing your job due to the fact that there is no boredom.
You don’t have to completely give up technology in order to cure the addiction, but rather you just need to make sure you aren’t overusing it or using it to mindlessly distract yourself. Individuals need to understand that boredom is a instinct, and it helps us by sending signals that something in life has to change. It gives our brains a break, and allows us to appreciate ourselves without distractions.
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Smartphone Addiction 
I really like the way you illustrating the phone addiction, and I agree with that the phone addiction is not caused by efficiency but repetitive usage. I myself is little addict to phone and I would pull out my phone whenever I felt awkward and boring. As the repeated times increase, I started feeling unsafe when I didn’t check the notifications. Therefore, I did so as you mentioned in second part, I told myself to enjoy the boredom and tried to get used to that, and the effect was obvious. I myself have a strong echo when I read the post, and, also, I think you can offer some other practical way, such as setting a restricted timetable for using phone, for the audience. Great post overall!
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I agree with you in this post, taking a break to smartphones is not bad and giving up technology is not necessary either to at least reduce the addiction. I sometimes find myself being concerned with the number of people relying upon too much with smartphones. I actually got my phone so late, and so most of my childhood or my life, in general, was spent without phones being with me 24/7 actually going outside having an adventure, compared to my life right now as well to the children around me, where we realized we spend our days or weeks on our phones. For me, boredom is something unexplainable, I feel like my time gets wasted when I don’t do anything, thus I find myself reaching out to my phone just to do something. We might find ourselves being bored when the internet is out or when we left our phones, going outside or doing something else seems to be a good solution. In addition, the amount of entertainment we find is mostly found in phones, another reason why we get addicted. I wonder if people can easily adapt to the environment where they don’t have to use phones all day long.
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