Smartphone Use can be Addictive

Did you know your smartphone can affect your brain? We call this brain drain or brain fog, I’m sure you’ve felt it.  According to Dr. Karen Smith, California Department of Public Health, about 95% of Americans own a cell phone. Kids get their first phone when they are 10. If you have read A Deadly Wandering, by Matt Richtel, you already know that the sound you get when a text message comes in triggers a spurt of the pleasure neurotransmitter, dopamine. It doesn’t take very long for adults to form an addiction to those dopamine squirts!  It’s even more addictive for children. The greater concern is leaving your cell phones in your bedroom at night.

Why is that important?

Smartphones Affect Your Brain

In a recent article from the University of Chicago, cognitive capacity was discussed in relation to smartphone use. Would it surprise you to learn that your brain can only attend to a relatively small amount of information at any given time? This limitation means that our brain uses the attention available to make decisions, be it immediate choices or long-term goals. It is used to achieve goals or access self-discipline. In this very interesting study, the authors refer to working memory and working memory capacity. Lastly, fluid intelligence is the ability to reason and solve real problems, even novel problems without previous experience with the issue.

Multi-tasking on your smartphone can reduce your cognitive and problem-solving abilities.

Their point is that if you are using a great deal of your mental bandwidth to access information on the internet, you are reducing your cognitive bandwidth for your own cognitive and problem-solving issues. Not only that, the mere presence of our smartphones may serve as a constant distraction, drawing your focus away from the task at hand, thus further fragmenting your cognitive skill set.

Holding the Phone to your Ear…Good or Bad?

Regular wired or Bluetooth headsets can concentrate the radiation next to your ear. You can either use your speakerphone or get some protection for both your phone and your headset.

Reduce the EMF from your phone and help reduce brain drain.

One Aulterra EMF Neutralizer can be placed on the back of your phone or inside the case over the battery to reduce the EMF coming from the phone. You can use your phone on speakerphone and keep it in the SYB EMF protection phone pouch, or use their air tube headsets. Last, you can spray your screen and/or Bluetooth headset with the Aegis Anti-radiation LS Spray (see below)

Coping Strategies to deal with brain drain

1. When you are working on a project, put your Smartphone away. If you need to move it to another room or zip it into your purse or briefcase to avoid checking it, Do It!
2. Keep your phone out of your bedroom at night. For that matter, keep all electronics other than a small alarm clock OUT of the bedroom. Read why you don’t want your smartphone as an alarm clock.
3. If you have WiFi in the house, put it on an electronic timer so it goes off at bedtime and comes on in the morning when you need to access it.
4. If you are using a Bluetooth headset, use the Aegis anti-radiation spray every couple of weeks to reduce the EMF without compromising the cell signal. (This spray does not block the signal – it merely breaks up the radiation waves.) The spray is a hypo-allergenic, fragrance-free plant-based product.