Phone Use Challenge

In my recent Slate Post I talked about Smartphone Addiction in simple words is the overuse of smartphones. This can also include social media. Overuse of these things can have a negative effect. Some effects are depression, suicide, interference with how productive you are, and interference with your sleep schedule. You can even have a “tech” neck. Over time, the position of leaning over your phone can cause your neck to be stiff and stay slanted.

An organization called the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. Dr. Greenfield, who founded the organization, treats people with internet and technology addiction. He is also known internationally. The organization has therapy and workshops to help the addiction. At Camp Poconos Trail they have a tech overuse program. In this video, they explain how this program works, and the effects it has. They show kids what activities they can do that don’t involve going on their phones. I think camp is a great way to learn how to be off your phone, learn what to do in the meantime, and meet new people.

For my Agent of Change I decided to create a phone use challenge. Basically you would try to spend less hours on your phone for a whole week. You would set a goal based on the average amount of hours you spent the week before. You would do the things that you probably have been procrastinating to do. I chose to do a challenge because I was not exactly sure how I would make a change. I knew that I wanted people to at least try spending less hours on their phone, get them to realize the negative effects and that is how I came up with the idea of a challenge. A challenge is something people can decide to try and is not exactly forced and the challenge itself is adaptable to their average hours goal. I created a google form as feedback to see if this challenge was helpful or not but unfortunately I did not get any responses. My effectiveness is unsure due to the fact that I don’t know if people actually tried the challenge.

I enjoyed doing this project because it is an eye opening experience. I feel like this project sounds a bit scary because you are going to have to put yourself out there and it is not something that just you and your teacher will see but people out in the world will also see. Something I could have done better was organizing, preparing, and presenting my Agent of Change earlier. I think if I had not presented two weeks before grades are put in, I guess people would have tried the challenge and filled out the google form. I think what is left for me to do is also try the Phone Use Challenge and see for myself if it helps, see what changes I should make the challenge.