About Smartphone Addiction

Someone asked me a question about it. Yes, these darn things are very addictive, I know from personal experience, unfortunately. And the big companies want it this way. In fact, there are several lawsuits running about this very topic right now:

Instagram's parent company Meta and Google's YouTube face claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums...

Mark Lanier delivered the opening statement for the plaintiffs first, in a lively display where he said the case is as "easy as ABC," which he said stands for "addicting the brains of children." He called Meta and Google "two of the richest corporations in history" that have "engineered addiction in children's brains."

... He emphasized the findings of a study Meta conducted called "Project Myst" in which they surveyed 1,000 teens and their parents about their social media use. The two major findings, Lanier said, were that the company knew children who experienced "adverse events" like trauma and stress were particularly vulnerable for addiction; and that parental supervision and controls made little impact...

He also showed internal Google documents that likened YouTube to a casino, and internal communication between Meta employees in which one person said Instagram is "like a drug" and that employees are "basically pushers."

 You can read the whole article over here. And here is another one on the same topic from CNN. 

So yes, it's not all in your mind. The only advice I can give (and it doesn't work perfectly) is to acquire a laptop (you can buy them quite cheap second-hand, at least where I live), install it in a permanent place (connect the printer and speakers to it so that you don't face temptation to take it everywhere with you) and use it for browsing. Use your phone for phone stuff and may be sending messages/WhatsApp. If it's possible for you, use WiFi at home while on your phone and disconnect it from 4G so that you can't surf the net while outside. You still can use it for emergency situations. I know it's easier said than done though but it might help;)