We Live in the Age of Popcorn Brain and Smartphone Addiction

Digital media is shortening attention spans and causing a condition that a University of Washington researcher calls Popcorn Brain. Recent studies show that 62.3% of the planet is on social media with average viewing amounting to 2 hours and 23 minutes daily.

Attention spans have shrunk from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 and 47 seconds today. The constant use of digital media is altering the neural pathways of our brains. We are adapting to rapid information absorption dictated by the media. It is negatively impacting learning and memory. It is impacting our emotional well-being, our ability to interact face-to-face with people, our productivity and our patience.

A Baylor University study in 2017 entitled “Phubbed and Alone: Phone Snubbing, Social Exclusion, and Attachment to Social Media,” noted that preoccupation with our smartphones has “irrevocably changed how we interact with others.”
Phubbing is a term that describes how when interpersonal face-to-face actions fail, parties seek affirmation in likes and shares within online social media.

More than 330 participated in the Baylor study with the following results:

• Almost half of those phubbed spent more than 1.5 hours on their phones daily, a quarter of them mostly on social media sites.
• More than one-third of those phubbed turned to social media for interactions with others.
• More than half of those phubbed described social media as enhancing their lives.
• A majority of those phubbed reported that comments on their social media posts made them feel affirmed and more accepted.

The Signs of Smartphone and Digital Media Addiction

Our smartphones are making us dumber, more isolated, negative and antisocial. Smartphones have become as much a drug as nicotine or other abusive substances.

Do you recognize yourself in any of the following behaviours?

1. You don’t wait to be pinged anymore but rather check your smartphone screen as often as every 15 minutes.
2. You get into the habit of endless scrolling through onscreen content.
3. You go to a restaurant and take pictures of your food to post to Instagram or X.
4. When a subject comes up in conversation you immediately look for more information about it online.
5. You browse the video clips on X, TikTok, YouTube and other media sites for no apparent reason.
6. Your smartphone screens are populated with apps that you never use but feel you must have just in case.
7. The last thing you do before bed is look at your smartphone.
8. The first thing you do in the morning is look at your smartphone.
9. When you go to use your smartphone for a specific purpose, you get distracted by the news and media feeds that pop up on your screen.
10. You always carry your smartphone in your hand rather than putting it in a pocket or purse.

If you recognize yourself doing any of the above, then you are a smartphone addict.

Smartphone Addiction Cures

How do you kick the smartphone and social media habit?

1. Schedule your smartphone use. The rest of the time put it away.
2. Get a Google Mini, Amazon Alexa, or other smart speaker and use your voice to ask questions, and your ears to listen to the answers rather than look at your smartphone screen.
3. Make your smartphone home screen less appealing. Remove most of the apps. When it is duller to look at, you will look at it less.
4. Specifically, take the social media apps off the home screen so that they are one layer removed from tempting you.
5. Keep track of your viewing time. Calculate time wasted. Use that number to set lower targets to wean you off the device. There are even apps to help you do this.
6. Turn the phone off when you go to bed. Don’t turn it on until after you have completed your morning wake-up routine.
7. Get a hobby. Learn to play a musical instrument. Draw. Sculpt. Make pottery. Do crosswords, word searches and Sudoku puzzles.
8. Take walks. Go for swims. Go to the gym. Leave your smartphone behind.
9. When you go on vacation, don’t turn on the WiFi connection at your hotel. You may not be on an airplane but you can keep your phone in airplane mode and enjoy your time away.
10. And if you cannot resist the temptation, then give the phone to a trusted person at specific times so that you can’t look at it. If you don’t have a trustee, then get a timer-controlled lock box and throw the phone in it to wean you from your addiction.