Stressors of the digital world you must be aware of
To date, there are more than 280 million smartphone users in the USA, and this number is expected to reach 285 million by the year 2023. 47% of the U.S. smartphone users say that they can’t live without their devices; and 35% of the total users are those that check their phones more than 50 times a day (Pew Research Center).
According to a report published by Data Re portal, the average user will tap, swipe and click their phones 2617 times a day. Yes, we do click, swipe and then tap several times every day. While the fundamental function of the mobile phone was to facilitate phone calls on the go, how many of us use mobile phones to just make traditional phone calls? In fact mobile phones are no more just mobile phones, they are mobile computers that we utilize to deal with a lot of our personal as well as official matters. But this over-dependency is leading to over addiction of smartphones that in turn has taken the form of digital anxiety and stress. The mental health of individuals having high levels of engagement with smartphones is somehow at risk. You know how? Here is the detail of some of the digital stressors and how are they affecting our mental health:
We highly depend upon our digital devices for information and connection, so the feeling of losing them makes us anxious. Think for a moment, if suddenly you are not able to find your phone, what would you do? You would start thinking about how to deal with losing a lot of important data stored in your phone. This way, a lot of smartphone users are consistently facing a fear of losing their smartphones or fear of being without smartphones for a while or so, this fear has an adverse impact on their day-to-day life. Mental health practitioners name it ‘nomophobia’