Perspective

A Possible Dependence Syndrome Emerges from Mobile Phones

We would like to be a little happier. The problem is that much of what determines happiness is not in our control. Some of us are genetically predisposed to see the world through rose-coloured glasses, while others have a generally negative outlook. Bad things happen, to us and in the world. People can be unkind and jobs can be tedious. But we do have some control over how we spend our leisure time. That's one reason why it's worth asking, which leisure time activities are linked to happiness and which are not.

There are some organizations, universities that conduct studies on happiness. In a recent analysis of one million US teens shows how teens were spending their time and which activities correlated with happiness, and which didn't.
The study focused if changes in the way teens spend their free time might partially explain a significant drop in teens' happiness after 2012 - and perhaps the decline in adults' happiness since 2000 as well.

Overuse of Mobile Phone

Mobile Phone overuse is a dependence syndrome seen among mobile phone users. Some mobile phone users exhibit problematic behaviors related to substance use disorders. These behaviors can include preoccupation with mobile communication, excessive money or time spent on mobile phones,

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use of mobile phones in socially or physically inappropriate situations such as driving an automobile. Increased use can also lead increased time on mobile communication, adverse effects on relationships, and anxiety if separated from mobile phones or in a signal connectivity issue.

World Health Organization on Dependence Syndrome

The Tenth Revision of the International classification of Diseases and Health Problems (ICD-10) defines the dependence syndrome as

being a cluster of physiological, behavioural, and cognitive phenomena in which the use of a substance or a class of substances takes on a much higher priority for a given individual than other behaviours that once had greater value. A central descriptive characteristic of the dependence syndrome is the desire (often strong, sometimes overpowering) to take the psychoactive drugs (which may or not have been medically prescribed), alcohol, or tobacco. There may be evidence that return to substance use after a period of abstinence leads to a more rapid reappearance of other features of the syndrome than occurs with nondependent individuals.

ICD-10 further states that in unqualified form, dependence refers to both physical and psychological elements. Psychological or psychic dependence refers to the experience of impaired control over drinking or drug use while physiological or physical dependence refers to tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. In biologically-oriented discussion, dependence is often used to refer only to physical dependence.

Dependence or physical dependence is also used in the psychopharmacological context in a still narrower sense, referring solely to the development of withdrawal symptoms on cessation of drug use. In this restricted sense, cross-dependence is seen as complementary to cross-tolerance, with both referring only to physical symptomatology (neuroadaptation).

Substance use disorders can be defined by 11 factors, according to DSM-5, such as

Use in larger quantities or for longer than initially intended.
A desire to cut down or control use.
Spending a great deal of time obtaining, using or recovering from the substance
Cravings and urges to use the substance
Unable to manage undertakings at workplace, home or school because of substance use.
continuing to use, even when it causes problems in relationships.
Giving up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of substance use.
Use in situations in which it is physically hazardous.
Continued use of the substance despite adverse physical and psychological consequences associated with use.
Needing more of the substance to get the desired effect (tolerance)
Development of withdrawal symptoms

Smartphone addiction can be compared to substance use disorders in that smartphones provide the drug (entertainment and connection) while acting as the means by which the drug is consumed. A study conducted at Alabama State University on the effects of smartphones on students, defines the issue by stating that we are not addicted to smartphones themselves, but that

we are addicted to the information, entertainment, and personal connections (that a smartphone delivers).

People have an affinity for constant entertainment, and smartphones provide the quickest and easiest accessible route to it.

A Possible Threat Emerges

In another study, it was analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of eighth, 10th and 12th grades that's been conducted annually since 1991.

Every year, teens are asked about their general happiness, in addition to how they spend their time. It is found that teens who spent more time seeing their friends in person. exercising, playing sports, attending religious services, reading or even doing homework were happier. However, teens who spent more time on the Internet, playing computer games, or social media. texting, using video chat or watching TV were less happy.

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In other words, every activity that didn't involve a screen was linked to more happiness, and every activity that involved a screen was linked to less happiness. The differences were considerable - teens who spent more than five hours a day online were twice as likely to be unhappy as those who spent less than an hour a day.

Of course, it might be that unhappy people seek out screen activities. However, a growing number of studies show that most of the causation goes from screen use to unhappiness, not the other way around.

In one experiment, people who were randomly assigned to give up Facebook for a week ended that time happier, less lonely and less depressed than those who continued to use Facebook. In another study, young adults required to give up Facebook for their jobs were happier than those who kept their accounts. In addition, several longitudinal studies show that screen time leads to unhappiness but unhappiness does not lead to more screen time. If we want to draw a conclusion based on these researches, it would be very simple - put down your phone or tablet and go do something - just about anything - else.

It's not just Teens

These links between happiness and time use for screens are worrying news, as the present generation of teens spends more time with screens than any previous generations. Time spent online doubled between 2008 and 2016, and 82 per cent of 12th grades now use social media everyday (up from 51 per cent in 2008).

Sure enough, teens' happiness suddenly plummeted after 2012 . So did teens' self-esteem and their satisfaction with their lives, especially their satisfaction with their friends, the amount of fun, they were having and their lives as whole. These declines in well-being mirror other studies finding sharp increases in mental health issues among them, including depressive symptoms, major depressions, self-harm and suicide. Especially compared to to the optimistic and almost relentlessly positive millennials. They are markedly less self-assured and more are depressed.

A similar trend might be occurring for adults. In the same study it is found that adults over age 30 were less happy than they were 15 years ago, and that adults were having sex less frequently. There

Asverse effects of excessive use of monile phones among adults

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may be many reasons for these trends, but adults are also spending more time with screens than they used to. That might mean less face-to-face time with other people, including with their sexual partners. The result is - less sex and less happiness.

Causes are more Social than Economic Environment

Although both teen and adult happiness dropped during the years of high unemployment and the Great Recession (2008-2010), happiness didn't rebound in the years after 2012 when the economy was doing progressively better. Instead, happiness continued to decline as the economy improved, making it unlikely that economic cycle were to blame for lower happiness after 2012.

Growing income inequality could play a role, especially for adults. But if so, one would expect that happiness would have been dropping continuously since 1980s when income inequality began to grow. Instead, happiness began to decline around 2000 for adults and around 2012 for teens.

Nevertheless, it's possible that concern about the job market and income inequality reached a tipping point in the early 2000s. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that teens who didn't use digital media at all were actually a little less happy than those who used digital media a little bit (less than an hour a day0. Happiness was then steadily lower with more hours of use. Thus, the happiest teens were those who used digital media, but for a limited period of time.

Final Thought

The answer, then, is not to give up technology entirely. Instead, the solution is a familiar adage -

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everything in moderation. We should use our phones for all the cool things, it's good for and then set it down and go do something else.
Enough evidences support and ensure us that we might be happier for it.

Overview

In a 2013 Study by JAMA - Mortality for Publicly Reported Conditions and Overall Hospital Mortality Rates - focused that the 30-day mortality among high-risk acute care patients was 30% lower when the top doctors were out of town, as when they were away at conferences, leaving more junior doctors in charge. The authors explained that most errors doctors make are connected to a tendency to form opinions quickly, based on prior experience, but in cases that are not routine, that can be misleading - the expert doctors may miss important aspects of the problem that are not consistent with their initial analysis. So a dose of inexperience can be beneficial. The same is true for eccentricity of childishness.

Life is all about change, but for some people, that change is not very pleasant. Psychology tends to label attractions to situations as "philias'. It may sounds like dreaded disease, someone who is a neophiliac, simply craves anything that's new.. In her survey of the recent research New : Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change the journalist Winifred Gallagher argues that Neophilia has always been quintessential human survival skill, whether adapting to climate change on the ancestral African Savanna or coping with latest digital toy from Silicon Valley. The concept of being attracted to the new has a long history in psychology.
Ms Gallagher says.

Nothing reveals your personality more succinctly than your characteristic emotional reaction to novelty and change over time and access many situations. It's also the most behavioral difference among individuals.

Drawing on the work of Dr. Cloinger and other personality researchers, she classifies people as neophobes, neophiles and the most extreme neophiliacs

Ms Gallagher says in an interview with New York Times,

Although we are neophilic species, as individuals we differ in our reactions to novelty, because a population's survival is enhanced by some adventurers who explore for new resources and worriers who are attuned to the risks involved.

Evolution

Modern psychology literature speaks of the human attraction to novelty and change Psychologists have coined it neophilia. It is what encouraged our prehistoric ancestors to explore and experiment even when their lives were fine. Evolution favored that behavior because it led to the discovery of alternate food and water sources, and the invention of new hunting methods and tools, all of which became vital when times changed for the worse. Scientists have identified a gene associated with the novelty-seeking tendency, DRD4, affecting the way our brains respond to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is important in the brain's motivational circuitry.

Flexible Thinking

One of the abilities most important to neophilic thinking also called elastic thinking, is the power to relax one's mind, to let our guard down.

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Being focused is important in rational and logical thinking, but it means our filters are turned up high. so our ideas may have a narrow range, and tend to be conventional. Our focus may also impede any tendency to question the assumptions behind whatever issue we are considering. On the other hand, when our mind is relaxed, we can play with idea of new paradigm. We are not worried about why our ideas might be wrong. We are not worried about failure. We can experiment. Our mind can wander to new territory and stumble upon novel ideas, and new ways of looking at things.

That is why it is often fruitful to think intensely about an issue, and then taking a break in which we engage in a mild physical activity, but are not mentally focused; as when jogging , or in the shower. Similarly, researchers have found that quietly pondering an issue when we are intellectually exhausted, at the end of the day, can allow original ideas, which might not otherwise surface, to get through.

Adjusting External Conditions

One can also cultivate insight by adjusting one's external conditions. Studies show that sitting in a darkened room, or closing our eyes, can widen our perspective; so can expansive surroundings, ever high ceilings. Low ceilings, narrow corridors, and windowless offices have the opposite effect. And a well-lit room can make it difficult to ignore objects in our surroundings that stimulate mundane thoughts, showing aside imaginative musings generated by our mind.

Being able to think without any time pressure is also important when striving for insight, because if we have to start on something else soon, our awareness of that can pull our mind back to the external world.

Just as important, interruptions are deadly. A short phone call, email or even a text message can redirect our attention and thoughts. Even the thought that some message may be awaiting, we can have same effect.

Some Arguments on Neophilia

The future belongs to the neophiliac mind. This is the argument behind the recent best-selling book Elastic by Leonard Mlodinow, which examines the swirl of change we find ourselves living through, and the ways of thinking best suited to it. We all have what is needed for elastic thinking - to a greater extent, perhaps, than we realize. It's just a matter of recognizing the needed skills, Mlondnow argues, and nurturing them.

However, here the important point of holding fast and being steady in the search for truth comes in, which must be a sine-qua-non of nurturing elastic thinking skills. Vedanta calls this holding fast to the search of truth as Ista , an anthropomorphic representation of the ideal. The modern thinkers, while they are doing an amazing job in studying the dynamics of human thinking and working, are yet to recognize the vital contribution of the Ideal on human endeavors.

Final Thoughts

A neophile is distinct from a revolutionary in that anyone might become revolutionary if pushed far enough by the reigning authorities or social norms, where as neophiles are revolutionary by nature. Their intellectual abhorrence of tradition and repetition usually bemoans a deeper emotional need for constant novelty and change. The meaning of neophile approaches and is not mutually exclusive to term visionary, but differs in that a neophile activity seeks first-hand experience of novelty rather than merely pontificating about it.

The genetic variations affect the brain's regulation of dopamine. The variations have been linked to faster reaction times, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a higher penchant for novelty-seeking and risk-taking.

It is but only a part of the story. Researchers have found that people's tendency for novelty-seeking also depends on their upbringing, on the local culture and on their stage of life. However it is also noted that the urge of novelty-seeking drops with age.

Winifred Gallagher

In the pre-industrial cultures, curiosity was sometimes considered a vice, and people didn't expect constant stimulation. 'Boredom' did not come into popular use until the 19th century.
Today it's the ultimate insult --boring-- among teenagers perpetually scanning screens for something new. Their neophilia may be an essential skill, but it can also be problematic in various ways of life. Ms Gallagher warns

We now consume about 100,000 words each day from various media, which is a whopping 350 percent increase, measured in bytes, over what we handled back in 1980. Neophilia spurs us to adjust and explore and create technology and art, but at the extreme it can fuel a chronic restlessness and distraction.

According to Leonard Mlodinow,

Elastic thinking comes naturally to all humans, but one way it may be inhibited is through another power exercised by our brain, the ability to ignore inappropriate urges and tune out "crazy" ideas. The human does not act like a single information processor grinding through an algorithm on its way to solving problem. Instead, it acts as a set of interacting and competing systems.

Leonard Mlodinow.

That is why scientists often speak of distinctions such as conscious/unconscious, reason/emotion or right-brain/left-brain. When it comes to elastic thinking, those structures that generate new ideas must compete with other structures that censor them. We need the later because our minds are so amazingly prolific that without some filter, we would be unable to focus, and down in our own thoughts.

Ms Gallagher advises neophiles to be selective in their targets.

Don't go wide and shallow into useless trivia. Use your neophilia to go deep into subjects that are important to you.