Digital well-being against smartphone addiction
Google placed a lot of emphasis on digital well-being when Android P was unveiled, suggesting a number of new features that would help us spend less time in front of our smartphones.
In fact, the new version of our beloved OS has a dashboard that can track how much time we spend using our phone each day and how that time is allocated between the many programmes. A maximum usage period for each app, after which we will receive a notification, as well as a time after which the screen will start to “fade” to alert us that it’s time to go to bed, will both be programmable options.
Android P digital wellbeing
But is there really an issue with smartphone addiction, one could wonder? No need to disagree, though. In fact, the condition known as smartphone addiction syndrome has its own section on Wikipedia, and we have already discussed research showing how, when used carelessly, these devices can harm our health.
In a research performed by Ipos for Motorola, 44% of the sample who were interviewed said they felt almost driven to check their smartphones more often than they would want. Furthermore, the smartphone is considered to be the “best friend” of more than half of those surveyed who were born between the middle of the 1990s and 2010.
On the other side, the Royal Society for Public Health has discovered a link between the misuse of social media and a decline in people’s mental health (particularly the youngest), up to the commencement of the infamous FoMO. Also, according to Moment, it appears that a person’s perception of happiness is inversely related to how much time they spend on social media.
More and more people are becoming aware of the need to spend less time using their smartphones, as shown by the enormous popularity of applications like Quality Time or Forest, which have received more than one million downloads. For the record, Apple appears to be aware of the situation since it may introduce features in iOS 12 that are similar to those found in Android P.
Now that we know this, we may consider whether Google’s new functions are genuinely a helpful ally. Even though I don’t practise medicine, I answered “yes,” even if only in terms of prevention.
In fact, some people claim that the symptoms of nomophobia can really cause real panic attacks over the phone, complete with trembling, nausea, and tachycardia. In situations like these, seeking the assistance of an expert and following a certain treatment route could be advised in order to improve one’s quality of life.
It is crucial to admit that you have a problem and have the motivation to fix it, just as with any other addiction. Therefore, if individuals who should profit from them purposefully choose not to do so, their functions are rendered completely ineffective.
We must remember that there are other colours besides black and white, though. Indeed, there are many who are actually dependent on their smartphones and display signs of drug withdrawal when they are denied access to them (just as there are people like my grandparents who barely know what Facebook is).
But, there are also a lot of people who can’t be classified as “ill” and who just use their gadgets a little too much. As I’ve already indicated, I find the new Google services to be really helpful in these situations, both to avoid developing a real addiction and to prevent losing too much sleep or becoming overly distracted while taking a quick break from studying or working.
We conclude by attempting to provide an explanation for Google’s apparent keen interest in our online security. Remorse? Most likely not.
We must keep in mind that even this kind of action can be linked to an economic logic, notwithstanding the good faith with which we applaud Big G’s vital endeavour. We are in the field of corporate social responsibility, where businesses find it advantageous to do charitable work and, more generally, “behave nicely” because doing so can have positive effects on their reputation, sales, and employee morale.