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In brief: It’s a modern truth that most people can’t go more than 15 minutes without looking at their smartphones, so would you be able to avoid the device’s temptations for a full eight hours? A lot of users would likely to say no, though a $1,380 prize was enough incentive for one woman.
Smartphone addiction is a real issue, especially among younger people who can experience withdrawal symptoms when not constantly checking their phones.
A business in China held a “public welfare challenge” this week to find out if people could go a whole eight hours without looking at their handsets.
That might sound easy to some, but there were several caveats. First of all, the contestants had to lie flat during these eight hours. Mydrivers’ translated report suggests that there were no other activities to keep them occupied during this time, so no books, movies, etc.
The obvious solution here would be to just fall asleep, but napping through the challenge wasn’t allowed either. Finally, contestants weren’t even allowed to show signs of anxiety, which was monitored via a wristband that presumably checked vitals such as heartbeat.
Ten individuals were randomly selected to take part in the challenge within the business’ store. The winner was a woman who arrived in her pyjamas – surely that would have made not falling asleep even more difficult. She took home 10,000 yuan, equivalent to around $1,380.
Studies examining smartphone addiction go back to the early 2010s. It’s a problem that’s worsened in recent times as owning a device has become a necessity for most rather than a luxury. The loneliness during the lockdowns, more people working from home, apps designed to keep users constantly engaged, increasingly advanced games, and even AI bots are compounding the problem and keeping us on our devices even longer. In 2022, it was found that US adults checked their phones 352 times a day on average, four times more often than in 2019.
There is, however, no standard diagnostic criteria for smartphone addiction, but a summary of 82 different studies across 150,000 participants estimated that over 25% of people worldwide were addicted to their smartphones.
In 2016, this writer was forced to go a month without a smartphone. It was not an experience I remember fondly.
Masthead: Scotty Turner
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