LAJFSTAJL / LIFESTYLE
THE BEST NOTIFICATION The user is currently unavailable, working on self Are our phones a distraction from what’s important or actually an important tool for self- improvement - the truth is somewhere between the two A re you feeling more stress and anxiety than ever? Perhaps your smartphone is to blame. In these in-
night, phone in hand, stuck in the vortex of a Twitter dilemma from the previous day. Or you head out for your lunchbreak on a nice day and instead of resting your eyes from the computer monitor, you scroll through Instagram asking yourse- lf the same question: how can the- se influencers afford to spend half the winter skiing on Kopaonik and the other half in Zanzibar? In both cases, and many others, it’s seemingly impossible to take yo- ur eyes off your phone. Their almost irreplaceable, ubiquitous presence in our daily lives generates a conti- nuous bombardment of informati- on that influences our mental health to a greater or lesser extent. During these already angst-filled times in which we all live, we can’t help but wonder how much of a mental and emotional toll our mobile phones take on us. Licensed clinical psycholo- gist Maria Mouratidis claims that this “constant influx of informati- on" turns us into torn individuals, which is unsustainable over the long run from a mental health perspecti- ve: “holding devices literally in our hands all of the time keeps us in a constant state of alertness that can be draining over time,” she sa- id, adding, “it doesn't help that the amount and type of information is often not filtered for urgency or im- portance”. Social media also adds “fuel to the fire” of anxiety, given that it can compel us to ceaselessly compare ourselves to others, which can in-
crease feeling of depression. “Focu- sing on phones can also be a way of avoiding some thoughts, feelings and relationships,” she said. “Avoi- ding difficult feelings or complex re- lationships can contribute to men- tal health and addiction problems.” A lot has also been written about the fact that developers of smartp- hones and other tech devices clearly “knew what they were doing” when they created things like ‘likes’ and notifications – all of which activa- te our internal reward system. “Te- chnology is a tool. It is important to decide what type of relationship you want to have with your techno- logy,” says Mouratidis. “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.” As a strategy to combat the de- trimental impact of phones on our life balance, she suggests limiting our overall use of technology. Not every task in your day needs to revolve aro- und your phone. Read a book, or use your phone to call a loved one or a friend, instead of looking at social media or scrolling through the news. She also suggests disabling notifi- cations from your social media and email accounts. She also emphasi- sed the regular recommended bre- ak from phone and technology use of one hour before bedtime. Many apps have features that enable you to limit the amount of time you can spend using them. While it is true that you can exceed that limit, at le- ast you’re aware that you’re doing so.
tensively connected times, the un- relenting stream of notifications, messages and news via our smart- phones can leave us with the bit- ter feeling of being “drained” at the end of the day. And, no, this isn’t some layman's assessment: experts say that the barrage of text alerts and our constant engagement on social media through smartphones can have a long-term impact on our mental and emotional health. And while we’re on the subject of health, our mobile phones have been able to act as a direct conduit for anxi- ety since the outbreak of the pan- demic, with streams of disturbing information arriving at a very stress- ful moment. So, what are we to do? Gene- rally speaking, we have two options: adopt the practise of self-control in our daily smartphone routine or, qu- ite simply, put down our phones and breathe a sigh of relief. Oh, if only it were that easy... Consider this scena- rio as an example: it's late at night, you should be getting ready for bed, because you have a series of obligati- ons to address early in the morning. However, instead of going to sleep, you stay awake until well after mid-
Držati gedžete u rukama sve vreme drži nas u stanju konstantne kontrolisane panike Holding devices in our hands all of the time keeps us in a constant state of alertness
86 | Tehnologija » Technology
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