Mindlessly Scrolling

What would happen to your brain and body if you tried to stop using your phone? Since the average American touches their phone 2,600 times a day and this constant scrolling has altered your brain's neurology, after one hour you have probably tried to pick up your phone three or four times. After 12 hours of not using your phone, you may start to feel anxious because not using it releases the stress hormone cortisol.

This is because your phone alters three neurological pathways in your brain. These pathways are triggered when you expect or get a reward; for example, your phone's Tick Tock alerts, text messages, and Instagram story updates serve as several incentives for your brain.and physically alter these Pathways' functionality in the wake of your phone's disappearance. In response to your phone's constant stimulus, dopamine is released along these pathways. Every ding notification or text message from a friend acts as a mini reward that you now associate with picking up your phone, and these little associations become stronger and stronger in the Noggin. Cortisol is released when you're endlessly scrolling or using social media because the positive social interactions reward the brain and cause constant firing.

We're all in the cell phone age crisis, so after 12 hours of quitting, you are no longer checking your phone. That is, until you're just picking up your phone constantly. You know what I mean, sometimes you're on the phone with your mom for example and you're like wait where's my phone, it's usually in my hand this way not on the phone. You experience anxiety and a stress reaction due to the brain's inability to process the familiar stimuli. You detest this object more than anything in the world. Tech companies have studied these neuronal concepts in order to keep you using their products. If you look at this dopamine activity and reward chart, you see that you learn behaviors when you get a reward without a cue. After 24 hours of quitting, one survey found that people started to experience fomo, or the fear of missing out, which led to increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and more anxiety in other people. However, it is likely because these tech companies have actually hijacked our brains using their reward prediction error encoding of our Noggins.

This is all related to our ability as humans to survive by anticipating our wonderful yummy food, which makes us feel content when we anticipate a reward and changes our behavior when the anticipated reward is worse than expected and makes us want to stop doing it. Since checking your phone is such a low-cost effort, you expect small rewards and are generally satisfied. Health is a behavior that we learn from the food we continue to eat, but when applying this to our phone, we often can't predict what will happen when we check it. With notifications, likes, and communication, we are mostly always rewarded by checking it, making us learn to check it constantly. thus you keep using your phone for this purpose. Since the stimulus is no longer present when you stop using your phone, the hijacking of these neural pathways means you have tremendous incentives to check it repeatedly, which might actually make you feel more anxious. Most individuals report feeling the Phantom vibration or Phantom ringing of their mobile phone disappearing on day three after quitting. This is the point at which giving up your phone starts to seem like a scary movie; you'll actually feel it buzzing in your thigh like some blasted ghost of your former phone.

Day three of phone-free living is when the good things start to happen. Your friends, family, and lover may start to appreciate you because you're actually not paying attention to them and you're no longer fubbing, which is snubbing your loved ones for your phone. In one study, participants watched an animation in which one person constantly checked their phone while the other did not. The participants felt that the people who didn't check their phones had better communication and higher relationship satisfaction. After three days of phone-free living, you might start to notice improvements in your relationships.

After the fifth day of not using your phone, you can notice an improvement in your attention span and performance at work and school. According to a tiny research, college students who use their phones often now only focus on topic items for 65 seconds at a time. However, a study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University's human computer interaction lab found that employees who use their phones at work can only focus for three minutes at a time. Of the 136 students who took the test, some were required to have their phones switched off, while the others were allowed to have their phones on and receive text messages periodically. On average, pupils who received text messages fared 20% worse than those who did not have their phones out. This is because your conscious brain can only process one or two ideas at a time. Every time you check a notification or open a text message, your brain must switch between tasks, which causes the switch cost effect, which makes it difficult for you to focus. However, now that you've given up using your phone, you're not doing this as much, so you should be able to focus better at work or school. Your cognitive abilities will also continue to improve after five to seven days.

Individuals in a study involving 660 individuals looked at their analytical cognitive styles; on average, those with higher cognitive abilities used cellphones less frequently. After one week, a long-term study found that reducing cell phone use caused improved sleep. Some scientists argue that this is because the light from the screen disturbs our sleep, while others argue that the psychological arousal of the phone affects it. The study even went so far as to suggest that there may be a potential link between heavy smartphone use and decreased intelligence. Reading that study was a blow to the ego because I am known for using my phone more than a lot of other people and therefore yes, it's a bit of proof that I am dumb.

It is difficult to determine whether using a phone causes depression, but one study found that teens who use their phones for five hours a day are 71 percent more likely to develop risk factors for depression than those who only use them for an hour. After two weeks, you will also experience a reduction in neck and wrist pain. Large surveys and studies about people who use their phones less and get better sleep also support this theory. After 14 days of no phone anxiety, anxiety has decreased, and some studies even hint that you may have decreased depression.

According to one research, using your phone for extended periods of time increased your risk of developing neck discomfort. People who use their phones excessively may also get hamstring strain. this is a result of your grip strength weakening from using your phone and your median nerve growing larger. After two weeks of not using your phone, you may be able to heal not only your body but also your brain. The median nerve runs from your shoulder down to all of your fingers, with the exception of your pinky on the palm side. Using your phone increases the size of this nerve, increasing your risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, which is characterized by tingling, numbness, and weakness in your hands.