Contents
Surely you suffer from nomophobia and you haven’t noticed
Wellness
The fear of separating from the mobile phone is a very present phenomenon in our day to day life and is difficult to manage
If they ask us what we watch the most throughout the day, the answer might not be our children or partner, our friends, or even television! Almost certainly the answer would have to be: mobile. We give maximum attention to this electronic device, which condenses a large part of our life: that if the emails from work, the ‘whatsapps’, or the social networks, a point has arrived where, If we don’t have a cell phone nearby, we can even feel bad.
Although everyone gets a little defensive when told that they are mobile addicts, this is a reality: many people cannot get rid of the device. This ‘fear’
Being disconnected and away from the mobile is called ‘nomophobia’, and can be considered a ‘technoaddiction’. «All of us, in some way, are addicted to mobile phones. It would be very difficult for us to lead a normal life if it were taken from us; we have a certain dependency, “says psychologist Alba Valle, a specialist in mindfulness and digital detox.
Exhausted, stressed and empty
One of the consequences of this permanent connection is that, by receiving so many stimuli and content from the digital world, we are not able to process them, so all this accumulates in our minds and causes mental fatigue. “Every time one ‘surfs’ on the Internet, going from one place to another, we operate on automatic pilot but doing things that leave us exhausted, stressed and with a feeling of emptiness”, comments Alba Valle.
Another consequence of this excessive use is that, although the mobile phone allows us to be connected with many people, it in turn disconnects us from those around us. Gonzalo J. Sánchez, director of the ’emotium’ psychology center, explains that to solve this, the first thing to do is «become aware of the amount of time we spend on the networks, games and other applications ». Once this is determined, his recommendation is to make a table with the different activities that we like to do during the week; any hobby that doesn’t depend on being technologically connected. It also encourages us to ask ourselves three questions to analyze our use of technology:
– What did you use your mobile for?
– What does it give me?
– What am I missing by being constantly connected?
How to get away from the mobile in a healthy way
After completing this exercise, Gonzalo J. Sánchez encourages “taking action”: Brainstorm possible solutions. Set limits. “Just as when you eat it is about feeding and not fattening, there are people who have begun to put a limited time of use, as we do with children and video games, while on the networks,” he explains.
For her part, Alba Valle leaves a few practical tricks to reduce the hours we spend with the mobile:
In the first place, it gives two very simple guidelines: wear a wristwatch and buy an alarm clock, because many times we only go to the mobile to check the time, and we are already there. It also recommends setting an end time for mobile use, to be able to end the day without any digital stimulus, which will prevent us from sleeping well, and to be able to dedicate the end of the day to ourselves and whoever we want. Finally, there are two recommendations: delay when looking at your mobile phone in the morning, to avoid, from the first moment, living in that “parallel world”, and take a day or an afternoon off your mobile. “It can be Sunday, or a while when going for a walk,” he concludes.