The introduction of smartphone is a revolutionary invention in mobile history, but its increasing use has started showing the negative consequences. Smartphone overuse can be a sign of Smartphone addiction and can affect both social and health aspects of users’ lives.Adolescents may develop problematic behaviors, somatic symptoms, attention deficits, and aggression. The WhatsApp application is utilized by almost everyone using a smartphone. Its free facility to exchange text, photos, videos, forward jokes, and other information has resulted in excessive use. The impact may cause users to lose interest in the real world; their entire emotions may remain restricted to the App. The loss of control, serious interference in everyday life (at school or work), and a constant dependence are some of the symptoms to identify people with WhatsApp dependence.
According to WhatsApp, the app is used by more than 1 billion users in over 180 countries to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere.
If you have to put that in context; the population of the entire world as of October 2017 is 7.6 billion according to Wikipedia and the number of countries is 195.
One-seventh of the world population is already on WhatsApp and it has a presence in over 92 percent of the countries. On an average, a person sends 1000 messages in a month and receives over 2000 messages. The average usage time of WhatsApp every day is upwards from 25 mins.
With such presence, reach and daily activity; any problem arising from the usage of WhatsApp is nothing short of a worldwide epidemic.
According to the study published overuse of smartphones has started showing negative consequences and can affect both your social and health aspects. In adolescents, it may develop problematic behaviours, somatic symptoms, attention deficits and aggression.
WhatsApp is used daily for forwarding message, media, jokes and sometimes spreading fake news which spread like a virus. The excessive use may cause users to lose interest in the real world and the emotions may be restricted to the conversation within the app. Constant dependence on the use of WhatsApp leads to loss of control and serious interference in everyday life both at school and work.
People with symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder(BPD) such as a feeling of emptiness, getting bored easily, unstable self-image are more prone to be addicted to WhatsApp. These people may use WhatsApp more often to stay in touch with more number of people. Such people can display impulsive behaviours.
Studies have also shown that females used WhatsApp for longer durations than males. Researchers have found the associations among motives of smartphone use, social relations, perceived social support, and variables of psychological wellbeing.
The article also mentions a study of 27 years old female with a history of suicide attempts which is worth reading. Please find the reference and link to the article at the end of this blog.
The best way to win over any addiction is to first admit you have one. There is so much good you can accomplish with a platform like WhatsApp. However, most of us are doing quite the opposite. Check the questionnaire below and return back to know how to use WhatsApp Creatively and Profitably.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) characteristics such as feeling of emptiness, getting bored easily, unstable self-image increase the proneness for WhatsApp addiction as these people may use mobile more often to stay in touch with more number of persons. Studies have found that dependent internet users rank high in terms of the feeling of loneliness, affective disorders, low self-esteem, and impulsive behavior.[4]
A 27-year-old female was presented with history of suicidal attempt by hanging. History revealed interpersonal conflict with husband that resulted in self-harm attempt. The patient agreed that her attempt was to threaten the husband with no intention to die. There were multiple such threats and attempts in past. There was also a history of unstable mood and relations with friends, easy irritability, poor impulse control, and polarized thinking from adolescent period as per the patient’s parents. The patient was diagnosed with BPD and started on mood stabilizer (sodium valproate and escitalopram) for impulsivity and depressed mood along with psychotherapy to help her in anger management, improve coping styles, and stress management. Psychoeducation and counseling was done for husband.
Fact Check: Ask yourself the following questions.
The answers may be related to you or your children or someone you know well.
Question 1: Do you check your smartphone for messages on WhatsApp and its groups even when you don’t have a notification?
It has been noticed that most people start and end their day by checking messages on WhatsApp. Even unnecessary forward messages can be a source of relief for such people. Not finding any message or media in the WhatsApp inbox can give such people a feeling of being neglected, forgotten and emptiness.
You don’t have to be so hooked up to the messages. You are not missing anything serious or requiring urgent attention by ignoring the notification and completing the task at hand.
Remember; if there is anything that requires your urgent attention, you will definitely get a call from the person sending that message over WhatsApp.
So stop worrying about the notifications and make it a point to complete any task at hand before turning over and picking up your smartphone.
LIVE YOUR DAYS ONE TASK AT A TIME AND YOU WILL HAVE TIME FOR EVERY TASK AND CONTROL OVER YOURSELF.
Question 2: Do you feel irritated when someone fails to reply to your message or you fail to check on an incoming message on time?
You may find yourself frantically waiting for the two blue ticks on your sent message and eventually for a reply. Amongst couples in a relationship; this may turn out to a cause for a major argument.
The solution to Question 1 is also applicable on the other end of your chat. If you have something important to ask; call them. Don’t wait up for the blue ticks. It will only frustrate you.
Question 3: How often do you stay awake chatting on WhatsApp and sleep late?
Have you ever given it a thought; is it because you are not sleepy that you chat or is it the other way round. The addiction may cause you to lose your sleep in extreme cases even insomnia.
Unless you have a business mail to attend at night or something really important to wait up to; there is no point in disturbing your rest time. Keep the phone away from you.
You can tend to all the unread messages next day after your beauty sleep. Take your sleep more seriously; it will help you both physically and mentally. No one is going to criticize you for your self-discipline. Stay away from the ones that do (BLOCK THEM!).
Keeping the phone away also prevents you from snoozing your alarm multiple times in the morning and having interrupted rest patterns. Keep it at a distance which requires you to get up from your bed and walk to it.
THE WAY YOU TREAT YOUR SLEEP REFLECTS BOTH YOUR TODAY AND TOMORROW. YOU EARN THE SLEEP BY WORKING HARD TODAY AND WIN TOMORROW BY SLEEPING SOUND TONIGHT.
Question 4: How often are you distracted by a notification?
Do you keep checking for your notifications, even when you are in the middle of a job and your phone is on silent? Expecting a message from someone in the middle of an important task can distract you very easily. In adolescents, this may be the start of training their mind for attention deficit.
Notifications are meant to capture your attention, and they are pretty good at it. You can always mute unnecessary groups at work. Learn to ignore them and focus on your work.
Question 5: Do you get agitated over a conversation?
People have a tendency to annoy over social media and WhatsApp has become the go-to app for instant mischiefs. The source of agitation may be the wait for a reply or non-pleasant message. There have been numerous cases filed with the police in the past year for conversations over WhatsApp.
Just stay away from idiots; hold your temper and don’t get caught up in any legal issues. It’s all just not worth it.
Question 6: Do you tend to post pictures of food you ate and things you did in family and friends group?
Okay! This is normal until the 173 other members of the group start doing the same thing 4 times a day every day till you have a million unread messages. And don’t forget the dozen and more angry friends and family whom you didn’t appreciate amidst this mess.
Question 7: Checking ‘last online’ of friends in your contact list is something that is just uncalled for, yet majority of us do it, irrespective.
If someone has to message you, they will. By checking the last time they were online on WhatsApp won’t make you get a ping from them instantly. So why bother so much?
Question 8: Frequently checking your friends’ profile pictures on WhatsApp is nothing but a clear indication of you being inquisitive about your friends and fancy lives they are leading, which is reflected through their display pictures.
Not just this. Once you have seen the pic, you definitely want to compliment them by sending them a quick text. Ah, frequency and dosage of testosterone enanthate wasn’t Facebook not enough for this?
Question 9: You are addicted to WhatsApp if you have a habit of continuously checking your phone again and again after you have sent someone a message and haven’t received a reply from them for a few minutes.
Question 10: Is waiting really that tough? Strange we don’t even want to give a benefit of doubt to that person, who might genuinely be busy.
Question 11: If you love to forward all jokes – text and images – with your entire contact list through Broadcast message, well, you are definitely addicted.
Even if the other person never acknowledges any of your forwarded messages, you still would continue with your broadcasting.
Question 12: Keeping a tab on everyone’s status updates on WhatsApp is another indication that you have all the time in the world to know what is happening in others’ life and what is going on in their mind.
Someone, we do tend to judge the person on the basis of what they have posted as their status on WhatsApp and if not this, then take the sarcasm as if it was intended for us.
Question 13: If you pick up fights or arguments with your friends for a reason that despite being online on WhatsApp, they didn’t respond to your message or didn’t ping you, clearly you have given your life to it.
Understand it only leads to more confusions and misunderstanding.
Question 14: Driving, eating, sleeping, working or whatever you are doing, if you reply to a WhatsApp message as soon as you receive it, it clearly shows you are addicted to the medium.
Even if that means disturbing your sleep, or taking the risk while driving or getting distracted while work, you don’t really bother.
Best Ways To Get Over WhatsApp Addiction
Steer clear of carrying your phone the very next time you go out to meet friends and family. If you really want to say something to someone, say it face-to-face where your friend can easily observe your true feelings and not via a text or a status. This normally takes a bit of gut and gives you a chance to think about your thoughts and opinions before you voice it out.
Indulge yourself in something you wanted to ever before. Do not always get your eyes glued to your WhatsApp, start taking classes of cooking, dancing or whatever you want. Read the book you liked the most.
Fight your craving, make an effort to check the phone once every two hours rather than every minute. Stay away from selfie fling every time you look attractive. Just have fun with the “feeling pretty” moment and enjoy. Who knows, there might be the love in your life falling in love with you at first sight, but you are too busy with your smartphone, and you never notice him or her!
A few years back many people were struggling with an addiction to Facebook or Twitter, today the number of people hooked on them has reduced to be replaced by things like WhatsApp. Now they are used to save their data and want to restore WhatsApp everytime they switch to another phone.
Long story short, with any luck, the tips mentioned above should help you to get over this addiction.