Is your phone making you depressed?

Lana Camiel
It's Your Turn
Published in
6 min readJan 17, 2019

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

“Smartphones are not a concept of the universal progress — there are good things to this technology and there are negatives.” Dr. Jeff Cain

Noticing the problem in my life

For the past several years I’ve been asking my students about stress in their lives. The numbers of people reporting feeling consistently overwhelmed, stressed and anxious are growing exponentially.

Earlier this year I attended a pharmacy learning conference where some of these topics where discussed. One surprising explanation for the above problems came up in a session delivered by Dr. Jeff Cain, a professor from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. Additionally, he serves as a Director of Education Technology, so the area of smartphones and social media is near and dear to his heart.

Few weeks ago I sat down with Jeff to dig deeper. I wanted to know how he became curious about smartphones and what mental health concerns he sees in his students.

“In the past few years it has been really bothering me to see people in social interactions paying more attention to their device than to the person in front of them.” Dr. Jeff Cain

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From resilience to mental health

Jeff shared with me that his research in this area had a surprising beginning. He was helping a student to write a paper on her area of interest of grit and resilience. But the process of exploring the information proved to be anything but quick and easy, even though their review ended up pretty comprehensive — Review of Grit and Resilience Literature within Health Professions Education.

Many of the concepts of resilience are connected to mental health, and unfortunately the situation has been changing in the past decade — Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among US Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time.

One of the scientists, Jean Twenge, shared her concerns with the public in her article Have Smartphones destroyed a generation? and her book iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us.

Jean’s work and another book by Adam Alter Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked became Jeff’s inspiration to evaluate the effects of this technology in his students.

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Lack of emotional nourishment

There is no question — many of us feel more connected today and have more ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ than ever before, but are these interactions healing for our health and psyche?

“Digital relationships are good to keep people connected, but they do not provide emotional nourishment the same way as physically spending your time with someone.” Dr. Jeff Cain

Just recently Jeff shared his concerns with other pharmacy educators with his latest publication - It’s Time to Confront Student Mental Health Issues Associated with Smartphones and Social Media.

Without a doubt, technology brings a lot of benefit to our lives. We can look at the information consumed, the advice offered and utilized, access to content that has never been available before.

Scientists are looking at this information carefully recognizing the positive effects, sharing it in publications such as The ‘Goldilocks Hypothesis’ and ‘just-right’ screen time and A Large-Scale Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis: Quantifying the Relations Between Digital-Screen Use and the Mental Well-Being of Adolescents.

Do these sound familiar?

Unfortunately, the negative sides are becoming more pronounced as well — from the symptoms mentioned earlier to nomophobia ​(fear of being without your phone) and even something as surprising as Snapchat dysmorphia. This symptom has recently been reported by plastic surgeons in the Journal of American Medical Association. Patients began requesting surgeries to make them look more like their own pictures with Snapchat filters on top — Selfies — Living in the Era of Filtered Photographs. Are you surprised that our fascination with social media affecting our norms and views on beauty?

What’s clear is that many of the negative symptoms start gradually, but eventually they sneak up on you. Society’s acceptance of technology, encouragement in the workplace and benefits described earlier are perhaps the main reason.

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Start with small steps

During my conversation I appreciated Jeff’s recommendations for more prudent use of the phones. These three really stood out for me:

  1. switch the screen to monochromatic view to use the phone as a tool, and not as an entertainment — ask yourself, how often you pull out your phone just to find something fun to see of read
  2. don’t bring your phone to your bedroom— to prevent sleep disturbances
  3. move social media apps from the home screen of your device

“If it isn’t something you have to interact with on the smartphone, turn off buzzing and beeping notifications. Move all your non-productivity apps off your home screen. Don’t carry your phone with you all the time.” Dr. Jeff Cain

Depending on the device you use, these are a couple of ‘how-to’ articles to get you started exploring your phone’s settings.

Realigning technology with our best interests

One of the most powerful reminder from Jeff’s work is that smartphones are designed for addiction. There is a lot of conversation in entrepreneurial circles on how to develop products that continue to bring your customers back to you. Creating a product that is loved is one of the main goals of today’s entrepreneurs. Designing with that in mind might seem like a smart business, unfortunately we are not always able to predict the long-term effects and beginning to pay the price for our inability to disconnect.

“The apps and the phones are designed so you keep coming back for that dopamine rush you get .” Dr. Jeff Cain

If you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t the first time you are hearing about the addiction potential of our technology. Tristan Harris, one of the early Google employees shared his views on the topic in 2016 here on Medium — How Technology is Highjacking Your Mind — From a Magician and Google Ethicist.

Last year, The New York Times was helping to spread the word in their article Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built. From TED talks stage to his own blog Time Well Spent, Tristan shares the power of controlling your own mind. Today, he is one of the founders of the Center for Humane Technology, a source I highly recommend to everyone. Its main mission is to encourage humanity to realign technology with our best interests.

“There are numerous benefits to smartphones but also negative aspects affecting our mental health and lives in general. We can say this is how the life is now, or we can remove our dependence and addiction.” Dr. Jeff Cain

The entire conversation with Dr. Jeff Cain is published at https://wellnessinsidernetwork.com/mental-health-smartphones-jeff-cain/

Want to develop a simple ritual of taking better care of yourself? Drink a daily cup of a delicious herbal tea!

Click to get a list of 5 of my favorite herbal resources to get you started.

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Teaching to be less stressed & more focused with the right herbs & food. Pharmacist/ herbalist/ teacher/ podcaster. https://plantloveradio.com