"What are you doing?" my wife asks suspiciously, as she attempts to kick me out of bed to make the children's breakfast.
"Just checking the time," I reply, putting my phone down.
It is a lie.
The very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning -
Nomophobia: when bad phone habits happen to good people
By Harry Wallop
Daily Telegraph UK·
5 mins to read
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Are you always online? Photo / Thinkstock
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
I am not alone. According to the latest report by Ofcom, the communications industry regulator, which released figures this week, the average amount spent online has more than doubled from 9.9 hours a week 10 years ago to 20.5 hours. A separate report suggests that the average Briton checks their phone 50 times a day.
In America, researchers have released a questionnaire to establish quite how addicted you are to your phone, and to the first question - "How strongly do you agree with: 'I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone'?" - I have to answer: "Very".
During major news cycles, not least the general election, I can easily justify my appalling habit. It is crucial that I immediately know every titbit of idiocy our politicians have inflicted upon us. I am a journalist, after all.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
But for the majority of the time it is just not necessary to check if anyone has found Ed Miliband's stone of pledges, or to see if my beautiful picture of a fern has been liked on Instagram, or to view how many times my witty apercus have been retweeted.
I can't undertake the most basic task - from making the children's lunch to cleaning my teeth - without swiping the screen to see if anything has happened. Anything, other than the task or conversation at hand.
I am aware that this is a problem. My three-year-old has been known to say, "Get off your phone, Daddy", as I nominally oversee bathtime. In a choice between him drowning and my phone getting waterlogged, it's a close-run thing.
Dr Richard Graham is a consultant adolescent psychiatrist at Nightingale Hospital, London, and an expert in technology addiction. He says the problem has become much worse in recent years because of the increasing number of devices that can be used to connect to the internet, from tablets to wearable gadgets such as a FitBit wristband, which measures your heart-rate. Only a couple of years ago, you would have been stranded if you had left your phone at home. Less so now. Although, despite the explosion in social media and internet use, Ofcom does actually record a small drop in the take-up of smartphones during 2014.
Dr Graham recommends that addicts like me should consider going cold turkey for a few days. "Challenge yourself to think about a period of at least a weekend, ideally a long weekend, when you are not going to use the device. And get others to join in with you. It is really important to get in control of the tool, rather than the other way around."
In theory, I am all for digital detox holidays, and many travel companies have started specialising in hiring out villas where there is no Wi-Fi and the phone signal is blocked. In practice, I worry that I will behave like an increasingly frantic Al Pacino in The Insider, wading further out to sea in order to get a phone signal.
Also, from a practical point of view, using your phone on holiday is a great deal cheaper, now data roaming charges have plummeted in Europe, and it is less bulky than a map or guide book.
One of Dr Graham's other pieces of advice, however, is something I am trying to do. "I'm very keen on people having no screenlight an hour before sleep, because some of our decision-making and concentration problems may be as much about screenlight as sleep deficit," says Dr Graham. This is especially important for children, with developing brains.
Phone addiction can become just as damaging as an addiction to alcohol or gambling, he warns. "Think of the cost of what you are doing, in terms of your relationships and whether others are upset that you are spending too much time on the device."
No more phone at bathtime, I promise. Unless it is a general election. Or a world cup. Or they find the Milistone.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
