How many times in a day do we find ourselves scrolling through smartphones? If we actually keep an eye on that, we will see that in a week, around 50-60 hours of time are spent just mindlessly scrolling down social media apps.
Sometimes, there is that tendency to keep on scrolling without having any aim or any reason. We are present yet completely detached from the real world.
This situation is known as “Zombie Scrolling”- which is mindless scrolling out of habit with no destination or benefit.
Why are people on their phones more frequently than ever?
Social media apps are uniquely built with features to make people stay more on their apps. One of the most highlighted features is push notifications. They keep on notifying the users about anything new that is happening in the apps or any updates. Push notifications lure the users to click on the app and use it for a while.
The notifications are greatly color-coded with vibrant colors that signal our brain to click on them as if it is something really important.
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have a variable reward system. These apps provide us with instant rewards in the shape of likes, comments, and follows. This instant gratification leads us to spend more time on these apps rather than doing tasks that may require greater focus and time.
Effects of Zombie Scrolling
Spending more time with our phones leads us to have one kind of emotional attachment with the device. So without it, we may feel anxious and other negative emotions.
According to research, it is proven that 89% of university students experience moderate or severe anxiety and fear when they don’t have their phones with them.
People who are addicted to their phones often delay doing important tasks which directly affect their studies or work.
In addition, phones may drift people away from real life engagements. This might adversely affect someone’s career if they do not have enough networking skills and rather stay on their smartphones.
How to avoid endless scrolling on phones?
Phone addiction and scrolling is positively related – the more one person scrolls the more addicted that person is to their phones. So, in order to combat zombie scrolling it is suggested to work on the phone addiction first.
There are many apps available which can help to track time spent on each app regularly; providing us with insights which can assist us to understand our phone usage patterns better.
From taking the help of time tracking we will mark the apps that we spend the most time on and later set an usage limit per day and strictly stick to it to limit wasting our time. For instance, setting a time of 2 hours daily limit on Facebook can help us be more aware of the time we spend on that app.
Most of the time, we attend events and to avoid interactions with people, we use phones as a medium to stop engagements with people. There are times we often lose great opportunities on effective networking. That is why it is important to stop scrolling and take the chance to meet new people.
Avoid using phones during events unless it’s really important. Make most of the time with real life engagements which can help us rely less on scrolling on our smartphones.
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Writer,
Fatema Tuz Zohora
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE.