Your Smartphone: A Tool for Good or Evil in the Fight Against Stress?

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It seems like it has become a genre convention, or even a cliche, of any discussion on mental or emotional health to bring up the dreaded smartphone. A lot of charges have been laid at the feet of our pocket powerhouses, and it’s hard to see where the line is between real concern and reactionary complaining. The truth is that screen time and anxiety can go hand-in-hand and be harmful to your mental health, especially your stress levels. They can also be a tool to help you manage it. There’s nuance to explore, so let’s get into it.

It seems like it has become a genre convention, or even a cliche, of any discussion on mental or emotional health to bring up the dreaded smartphone. A lot of charges have been laid at the feet of our pocket powerhouses, and it’s hard to see where the line is between real concern and reactionary complaining. The truth is that phones can be harmful to your mental health, especially your stress levels, but they can also be a tool to help you manage it. There’s nuance to explore, so let’s get into it.

Social Media: Scapegoat Or Villain?

When we’re talking about smartphones and their impact on stress, we’re often talking predominantly about social media. While it keeps us connected to those we love, and can help us find communities that share interests and hobbies, they have increasingly become portals to curated lives, endless news, and online arguments can drain emotional energy and heighten anxiety. A social media cleanse can help you shrug off some of that stress, but if you want to remain on those platforms, it’s important to curate them carefully, being proactive in removing any accounts from your feed that are hateful or otherwise stress-inducing. Not easy given the contentious social media landscape of today.

Turning Smartphones Into Your Gateway To Calm

Mindful of use of your smartphone can genuinely be helpful. They are devices that have as many functions as there are apps developed for them, so it’s no surprise you can find meditation apps, nature soundtracks, journaling tools, and more that can help you better manage and improve your mental health. However, the key is intentionality: choosing apps that support your well-being rather than mindlessly opening whatever grabs your attention. Used wisely, smartphones can offer powerful self-care tools that fit right in your pocket. But if you’re not careful, that same device can easily flip and feed into your stress instead.

The Good and Bad of Gaming

A lot of people use gaming as a means to combat stress, and smartphones are great for that. Being able to play even simple games like Spider Solitaire at no cost can help you take a quick break from work or distract your brain if you’re dealing with stressful thoughts. Many smartphone games are designed to be engaging without being overstimulating for just that reason. However, not all games are equally calming, and what’s more, it’s important to game in moderation. Spending too much time gaming during your screen time can affect your life balance. It’s also important to be mindful of how a game makes you feel. If it’s helping you slow down, great. If it’s keeping you up late, pushing in-app purchases, or increasing tension, it might be part of the problem.

The Dangers Of Constant Connectivity

Even if you’re not using social media, smartphones do have a way of keeping us “on” constantly. These devices make us reachable 24/7, whether it’s by our bosses, coworkers, clients, or even our friends and family. While this can be vital for helping us reach those we need, especially when in a hurry, it can feel like a digital leash that keeps us from fully relaxing. Combat this by setting quiet hours, turning on Do Not Disturb, or physically leaving your phone in another room. Give yourself permission to be unreachable sometimes. It is vital to have the room to recharge, especially if you use your phone for work.

The Impact Of Mindless Scrolling

Whether it’s on social media, forums like Reddit, or video platforms like YouTube, it’s all too easy to spend literal hours scrolling through your feeds, especially in the morning before you get up or late at night. However, this kind of passive phone use doesn’t usually bring the kind of relief that you are hoping for, but rather can actually overstimulate your mind. Even if it doesn’t look like you’re doing too much, you can end up seeing so much content that it can leave you feeling more stressed and drained than before you began. Doomscrolling has become the term associated with this practice for a reason: the negative impacts of screen time and anxiety. Rarely do you find things that uplift and improve your mood unless you’re specifically searching for them, and scrolling tends not to prioritize that kind of content.

Final Thoughts

Some people may find smartphones to be a constant source of stress, and, in those cases, limiting use altogether might be a good idea. For others, it’s all about how you use it, and hopefully, the tips can help you live a little more healthily with your smartphone. The general rule of thumb to avoid the link between screen time and anxiety is MODERATION – and a digital detox from now and then too.