Let’s admit it: many of us suffer from a certain smartphone addiction. Or when was the last time you turned off your phone for a week and did not enjoy 22Bet bonus?
Cell phone addiction has hardly been researched, but everyone knows the symptoms: Whenever we are bored for a few seconds, we no longer use the time to relax or think about ourselves and the world – instead, we check Whatsapp & other messengers for new messages, search for news on Facebook, scroll through endless Instagram pictures or post photos ourselves.
THE COLOR TRICK
Black and white trick against cell phone addiction. The New York Times headlined that quitting smartphones is the new way to quitting smoking. Now we found an exciting idea at treehugger: It helps against smartphone addiction by simply switching the smartphone to black-and-white mode.
Sounds a bit ridiculous at first. That’s supposed to be the whole trick? And yet there is something to it: If the smartphone is operated without color, everything on it looks “gray.” The cell phone loses a lot of its appeal. Because color literally has a signal effect on us. Colored things stand out and make it clear: This is important! That’s why, in the colorful world of the smartphone, everything always seems important to many.
Activate gray mode! Enable black and white mode – here’s how:
- Android: Settings / Accessibility / Visual Aid and turn on grayscale there (may vary depending on model).
- iPhone: Settings / General / Accessibility / Display adjustments / Switch color filters to On (default: grayscale).
Smartphone Addiction: Some More Tips that Help
Not all tips may seem useful at first glance; some even sound unpleasant or unfeasible. Just try a few and see for yourself what works for you:
- Mute it. One step against smartphone addiction: reduce the signal tones of the smartphone. To do this, turn off the notifications of the various apps or revoke their permission to give notifications – you should also turn off the vibration. Every beep only tempts us to reach for the smartphone again.
- Reduce apps. Whatsapp, Snapchat, and Hangouts are just one side of the coin – then there are all the news apps, mail apps, dating apps, Facebook & Instagram … Cutting down helps: fewer apps also create fewer distractions. Do you really need four messengers? Isn’t one enough, and only one social network?
- Go offline. Defined times without a cell phone are also a good idea. Simply switch off – and don’t be afraid of “inaccessibility”: Those who couldn’t communicate with you by 8 p.m. will be able to wait until the next day to do so.
- Set up “office hours.” It may be a comfort to some that we used to be mail addicts, not smartphone addicts. What helped with e-mails is also recommended for Messenger: Limit the time in which you answer e-mails and messages to a certain hour. That’s your office hour – you’re not available outside of that time. That’s it.
- “Misplace” your phone. Out of sight, out of mind – this also applies to cell phone addiction. Why not just leave your phone in your pocket instead of putting it next to you on the table, where it’s always capable of pulling you out of concentration?
- Create smartphone-free zones. Bathroom and bedroom would be a start for families the children’s room: You could simply decide for yourself that a smartphone has no place in these rooms. It would be a first step against cell phone addiction.