Digital well-being is a tool from Google that allows you to keep an eye on your smartphone usage and reduce the time you spend on your smartphone. Such tools are also available from other providers.Many people use their smartphones several times daily: calls, messenger messages, Slotsgem and the like demand more time and attention. According to a survey, young people spend up to 4.5 hours a day in front of their cell phone screens, while older people use their smartphones for just under 2.5 hours.
The problem of “smartphone addiction” is growing – one in ten young people in Europe already has a problematic relationship with their smartphone. In Germany, a relatively small proportion of the population (around one to two percent) is still affected by a severe disorder or behavioural addiction to cell phone use.
Smartphone operating system providers are now responding and providing software for “digital well-being” that makes it possible to monitor cell phone use and regulate it if necessary.
Digital Wellbeing with Android
Digital Wellbeing is an Android tool designed to help you use your smartphone more consciously. “Digital Wellbeing” is the Android solution for controlling time on your smartphone. The app of the same name determines how much time you spend on your smartphone, how often you use which app and how many notifications you receive.
Based on this data, you can limit your daily use of each app. The Digital Wellbeing app can also set the screen to grey instead of colour at certain times and remind you to switch off your smartphone at night.
Screen Time from Apple
Apple’s Screen Time app is a tool for digital well-being. Screen Time” is the digital wellbeing app for more conscious smartphone use in the IOS operating system. You can find the app in the settings from IOS 12 onwards. Screen time provides you with a time analysis of your smartphone usage.
This information lets you decide which apps are given a time limit. Set which app should send you a message after a certain period of use throughout the day if you exceed your set limit. Alternatively, you can have the screen time app block usage for the rest of the day once the set time has been exceeded.
Tips for digital wellbeing
Consciously switch off the smartphone from time to time. In addition to the apps on offer to regulate screen time, you can also improve your digital wellbeing by taking a few measures:
Digital detox: You can regulate your smartphone use without an app by consciously switching off your smartphone or other devices at certain times or leaving them at home.
Instead of a smartphone: Besides many valuable applications, looking at your smartphone is sometimes a way to escape boredom. Instead, go for a walk, meet up with friends or do some sport. You can find more tips to combat boredom in another Utopia article.
You don’t have to be always available: set it so that only calls and messages from particularly important people can trigger an acoustic signal or the vibration alarm. This means you can always be reached by family, partners and best friends, for example, while unimportant messages don’t distract you.
Digital well-being without new software: Even if your smartphone does not offer the software solutions presented above, you can reduce your smartphone consumption by making specific settings. Turn off push notifications that are not important, switch your smartphone to silent and set the screen to grayscale. This way, the device demands less attention, and you have more time for essential things.
Black and white trick against cell phone addiction
The New York Times headlined that quitting smartphones is the new way to quit smoking. Now, we have found an exciting idea at Treehugger: Simply switching your smartphone to black-and-white mode can help combat smartphone addiction.
Sounds ridiculous at first. Is that supposed to be the whole trick?
And yet there is something to it: if the smartphone is operated without colour, everything on it looks “gray.” The cell phone loses a lot of its appeal. Because colour has a signal effect on us in the truest sense of the word. Colour stands out and makes it clear: this is important! That’s why everything in the colourful world of smartphones always seems too important to many.
We tried it out ourselves, even though we don’t consider ourselves smartphone addicts, and somehow, we couldn’t take this simple trick very seriously. But the typical comments from our black and white switchers were always: “Nah, somehow I don’t like my smartphone like this anymore.” That’s a good thing! Because that’s precisely the point.
Will we just secretly switch back to colour? That’s why it might be a good idea to set aside specific “gray days” to combat smartphone addiction. For example, you could switch to black and white during the week and only “treat yourself to colour” at the weekend … just an idea.