The Best Six Tips for Students & Parents to Cure Mobile Addiction
In today's digital era, mobile addiction is a growing concern for students and parents alike. This guide offers six practical and effective tips to help break free from excessive screen time. Discover strategies to establish healthy boundaries, foster productive habits, and enhance focus and well-being. With these tips, students can regain control over their time, and parents can create a balanced environment that encourages growth and connection. Perfect for families looking to tackle mobile dependency together!
- Set Daily Screen Time Limits
To begin curing your mobile addiction, establish clear boundaries. One boundary is to limit daily screen time, first on a daily basis and then over a longer period of time.
For example, this revised time can be a specific target:
- "No more than two hours a day".
- Or, take a different approach, e.g. "twenty minutes less than yesterday".
If using the first strategy, choose a time limit, and try to meet it as closely as possible for two weeks (while keeping track in a daily journal discussed in our second blog post about mobile addiction). If successful after two weeks, try lowering the threshold again for the following two weeks. Repeat this process until a healthy screen time limit has been reached (consult with a family physician on what amount of time is healthy).
If using the first strategy, choose a time limit, and try to meet it as closely as possible for two weeks (while keeping track in a daily journal discussed in our second blog post about mobile addiction). If successful after two weeks, try lowering the threshold again for the following two weeks. Repeat this process until a healthy screen time limit has been reached (consult with a family physician on what amount of time is healthy).
If the second strategy is being used, determine the current amount of screen time, and aim to use the mobile device for 20 minutes less the following day. Keep at it for two weeks, and revise the time again by adding 5 or 10 minutes. Repeat this process until a healthy time has been reached.
- Promote Digital Detox Activities
An entire world is out there waiting to be explored, so turn those hands to something else! Learning to paint, studying local ecology, socializing, reading, playing sports, and entrepreneurship are just a few of the many thousands and thousands of things to do in this world. There is no reason to spend innumerable hours feeding a mobile addiction.
Activities can be one-on-one or in a small or large group. They can be scheduled or improvised, with friends or strangers. Most people are working to address mobile addiction, so allies and supporters can be found almost anywhere.
There are many keys to successfully breaking mobile addiction. When exploring your world, a good rule for what will work is to think about activities that make it impossible to use a mobile device. Just about anything will require attention to detail—things like reading instructions, keeping your eyes on a footpath, or looking at rocks (the study of geology). Another helpful reminder would be to always keep your hands occupied by holding something else, e.g. whether those are carpenter tools, a chess piece, or playing with your pets.
- Introduce “Mobile-Free Zones”
Establish "Mobile-Free Zones" after proper discussion with parents, teachers, and health care practitioners. These zones can be times or places.
"Mobile-Free Zones" can be centered around any activity where a mobile device is not going to improve the situation. Having access to a mobile device is not going to be helpful when trying to eat, or spending time with friends, family, or pets. They can also include any time there is studying to be done, or watching a movie.
They can also include specific locations, like a wedding, classroom, attending the theatre, religious services, or an important meeting.
Being in a time or place where other people are not using a phone can be a helpful reminder to not use a device. Often people take out a mobile because everyone else is also using their phone and there just isn't anyone else to talk to. If everyone's phone has been put away, it might feel awkward to use a mobile device. Lean into that feeling, and pay attention to whatever the group activity is!
- Establish "Mobile-Free Zones" after proper discussion with parents, teachers, and health care practitioners. These zones can be times
After proper discussion with parents, teachers, and health care practitioners, establish "Mobile-Free Zones". These zones can be times, or places.
"Mobile-Free Zones" can be centered around any activity where a mobile device is not going to improve the situation. Having access to a mobile device is not going to be helpful when trying to eat, or spending time with friends, family, or pets. They can also include any time there is studying to be done, or watching a movie.
They can also include specific locations, like a wedding, classroom, attending the theatre, religious services, or an important meeting.
Being in a time or place where other people are not using a phone can be a helpful reminder to not use a device. Often people take out a mobile because everyone else is also using their phone and there just isn't anyone else to talk to. If everyone's phone has been put away, it might feel awkward to use a mobile device. Lean into that feeling, and pay attention to whatever the group activity is!
- Practice Mindfulness and Time Management
Often people with mobile addiction reach for their devices just because they are bored, fearful, or stressed out. There is a solution!
Mindfulness
Learn mindfulness. Mindfulness is a technique that involves being fully aware and engaged in the present moment without judgment. Learning mindfulness is many thousands of years old, and billions of people have mastered the art. It will take a lot of practice, but anyone can do it.
Mindfulness can be organized meditation (solo, or in a group), or something less formal, like being content to observe your surroundings.
By redirecting attention inward, and being content with your present situation, bad habits of automatically reaching for a phone or endless scrolling can be broken. It will take lots of patience and practice, but success can be found. Practice being content without a mobile device in hand. Mindfulness doesn't have to be perfect, that's why it is practiced! Eventually, the fear and stress that is solved by instantly reaching for a device will be replaced with breathing techniques, internal focus, and accepting that it isn't necessary to always have a device within easy reach.
Time Management
Choose specific times and places when checking a mobile device for updates and notifications is appropriate. Perhaps that time is while traveling on the bus, ten minutes before meal time, or after all studying and assignments have been completed for the day.
Choose a select few times and places throughout the day to run through a mobile device's alerts. However, if every spare minute and opportunity is a chance to check a mobile, chances are good you need to be a more discerning at selecting when is appropriate. Remember, the idea is to use your device less and less often, so keep those times few and far between!
- Model Positive Behavior
Adults, whether parents, relatives, faculty, or school administrators, play a big role in modeling appropriate behavior for children when it comes to mobile addiction.
Share with the children in your life what specific advice has worked to curb your own mobile addiction (try some of our techniques!). Give advice to children on how they can think about their mobile addiction in a different context. Often children don't know that they are developing bad habits by constantly using their mobile device--all they know is that their parents are upset, but they don't know why. They truly don't know they are addicted.
In the above example, the father is encouraging his son to perceive the issue of mobile addiction as a sense of who has control. Who, or what, does have control? Does the child have control over the mobile device, or does the mobile device have control over the child? 'Frame the debate' in a way that makes sense to your child.
- Access to Counseling
Sometimes mobile addiction can be overwhelming for children and it helps to have someone to talk with about the issue. For various reasons, a student might not feel comfortable talking about the issue with a parent, or teacher, and so neutral third parties should be made available.
Counselors need to be ready to listen to a child's thoughts and feelings about their own perception of mobile addiction. Creating a judgment-free space is critical for helping children be honest about the problem--especially amongst other students. Nobody likes being teased! Fostering an open space where communication can flow freely without fear of name-calling or bullying is a cornerstone of any functional de-addiction program. Be sure to have adequate staffing levels so the students who seek advice can get it without waiting too long.
Encourage older students to visit younger classrooms and give a talk or presentation explaining how they dealt with their own mobile addiction. It will have more impact if it comes from an older student in the school.
Summary
Tracking screen time, exploring the world, disconnecting from mobile devices, practicing mindfulness, modeling positive behavior, and reaching out for help are all necessary components for successfully breaking a mobile addiction.
The use of these techniques will be different for each student, and some might spend more time utilizing certain tools over others. Be aware that every student is different, every mobile addiction is different, and so every solution will also be different.
How Inforida is Helping Parents with Student Mobile Addiction
Inforida will be providing a de-addiction toolkit for parents to help their children cure mobile addiction, and will also release a set of positive-learning dopamine games for students to play.
