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Unit 8. Managing Your Smartphone. Page 227. Reading 1.

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Addicted to your smartphone? Here's what to do.

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Why smartphones hook us in, plus tips on reclaiming your time and concentration.

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By Susan Davis.

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I'll admit it. I check my smartphone compulsively.

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And the more I use it, the more often the urge to look at it hits me.

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In the orthodontist's office, walking my kids to school, in meetings, even while making breakfast.

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Sometimes it is in my hand before I even know what I'm searching for.

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Sometimes I tap the screen absentmindedly, looking at my email, a local blogger, my calendar, and Twitter.

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I'm not the only one struggling with this very modern compulsion.

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According to a 2012 article,

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survey by the Pew Research Center,

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46% of all American adults now own a smartphone,

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up a whopping 25% from 2011.

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And smartphone use can get very heavy.

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In a study of 1,600 managers and professionals,

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Leslie Perlow, Ph.D., the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School,

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found that,

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70% said they checked their smartphone within an hour of getting up.

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56% checked their phone within an hour of going to sleep.

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48% check over the weekend, including on Friday and Saturday nights.

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51% check continuously during vacation.

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44% said they would experience a great deal of anxiety if they lost their phone

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and couldn't replace it.

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The amount of time that people are spending with the new technology,

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the apparent preoccupation,

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raises the question,

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why?

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says Peter DeLisi,

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Academic Dean of the Information Technology Leadership Program

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at Santa Clara University in California.

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When you start seeing that people have to text when they're driving,

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even though they clearly know that they're endangering their lives

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and the lives of others,

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we really have to ask what is so compelling about this new medium.

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Hook or Habit?

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Whether smartphones really hook users into dependency remains unclear.

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But we already know that the Internet and certain forms of computer use are addictive,

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says David Greenfield, Ph.D.,

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a West Hartford, Connecticut, psychologist and author of

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Virtual Addiction,

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help for netheads, cyber freaks, and those who love them.

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And while we're not seeing actual smartphone addictions now,

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Greenfield says,

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the potential is certainly there.

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A true addiction entails a growing tolerance to a substance,

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think drugs or alcohol,

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so you need more to get high,

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uncomfortable symptoms during withdrawal,

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and a harmful impact on your life,

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Greenfield says.

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Computer technology is a new technology,

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and technologies can be addictive, he says,

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because they're psychoactive.

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That is, they alter mood and often trigger enjoyable feelings.

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Email, in particular, gives us satisfaction

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due to what psychologists call variable ratio reinforcement.

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That is, we never know when we'll get a satisfying email,

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so we keep checking over and over again.

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It's like slot machines, Greenfield says,

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we're seeking that pleasurable hit.

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Smartphones, of course, allow us to seek rewards,

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including videos, Twitter feeds, and news updates,

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in addition to email, anytime and anywhere.

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Is such behavior unhealthy?

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That really depends on whether it's disrupting your work

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or family life, Greenfield says.

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Such a disruption could be small,

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like ignoring your friend over lunch,

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to post a Facebook status

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about how much you're enjoying lunch with your friend.

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Or it could be big,

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like tuning out a distressed spouse or colleagues

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in a meeting to check email,

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or feeling increasingly stressed by the fact

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that everyone else seems to be on call 24-7,

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so perhaps we should be too.

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Other researchers are seeing clear signs of dysfunction,

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if not an addiction.

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According to a 2011 study,

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published in the journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing,

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people aren't addicted to smartphones themselves

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as much as they are addicted to checking habits

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that develop with phone use,

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including repeatedly and very quickly

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checking for news updates, emails,

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or social media connections.

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That study found that certain environmental triggers,

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like being bored or listening to a lecture,

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trigger the habits.

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And while the average user checks his or her smartphone

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35 times a day,

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for about 30 seconds each time,

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when the information rewards are greater,

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for example, having contact info

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linked to the contact's whereabouts,

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users check even more often.

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The Interrupted Life

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Besides creating a compulsion,

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smartphones pose other dangers to our mental life,

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says Nichols,

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author of The Shallows,

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What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

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The smartphone, through its small size,

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ease of use, proliferation of free or cheap apps,

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and constant connectivity,

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changes our relationship with computers

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in a way that goes well beyond

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what we experienced with laptops, he says.

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That's because people keep their smartphones near them

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from the moment they wake up

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until the moment they go to bed.

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And throughout that time,

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the devices provide an almost continuous stream

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of messages and alerts,

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as well as easy access

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to a myriad of compelling information sources.

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By design, he says,

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it's an environment of almost constant interruptions

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and distractions.

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The smartphone, more than any other gadget,

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steals from us the opportunity

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to maintain our attention,

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to engage in contemplation,

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and reflection,

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or even to be alone with our thoughts.

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Carr, who writes extensively in The Shallows

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about the way that computer technology in general

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may be diminishing our ability to concentrate

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and think deeply,

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does not have a smartphone.

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One thing my research made clear

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is that human beings have a deep, primitive desire

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to know everything that's going on around them,

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he says.

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That instinct probably helped us survive

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when we were cavemen and cavewomen.

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I'm sure one of the main reasons

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people tend to be so compulsive

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in their use of smartphones

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is that they can't stand the idea

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that there may be a new bit of information out there

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that they haven't seen.

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I know that I'm not strong enough

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to resist that temptation,

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so I've decided to shun the device altogether.

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Managing your smartphone use.

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Can't give up your phone altogether?

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Experts suggest these steps to control your usage.

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Be conscious of the situations and emotions

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that make you want to check your phone.

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Is it boredom?

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Loneliness?

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Anxiety?

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Maybe something else would soothe you.

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Be strong when your phone beeps or rings.

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You don't always have to answer it.

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In fact, you can avoid temptation

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by turning off the alert signals.

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Be different.

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Be disciplined about not using your device

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in certain situations,

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such as when you're with children,

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driving, or in a meeting,

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or at certain hours,

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for instance, between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

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You'll be surprised and pleased

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to rediscover the pleasures

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of being in control of your attention,

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Carr says.

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One group of business people

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at the Boston Group, a consulting firm,

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discovered just that

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when they participated in a survey

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in an experiment run by Perlow.

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As described in her book,

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Sleeping With Your Smartphone,

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the group found that taking regular,

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predictable time off, PTO,

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from their PDAs

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resulted in increased efficiency

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and collaboration,

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heightened job satisfaction,

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and better work-life balance.

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Four years after her initial experiment,

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Perlow reports 86% of the consulting staff

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in the firm's Northeast offices,

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including Boston, New York,

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and Washington, D.C.,

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were on teams engaged

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in similar PTO experiments.

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To manage my own smartphone well,

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more smartly,

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I weaned myself away from it.

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I started by not checking it

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for 15 minutes at a time,

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then 30, then 60,

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unless I was dealing

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with an urgent situation.

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I decided to avoid

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using the web browser

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on the smartphone

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unless I truly needed information,

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such as an address or phone number.

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And I swore off

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using social media on it entirely.

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I also made a firm commitment

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to not text, email,

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or surf the web on my smartphone

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while driving.

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The result?

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Even after a few days

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of this self-discipline,

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I found that I was concentrating better,

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more aware,

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of my surroundings,

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and more relaxed.

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And I was more aware

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of when I was looking

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for something specific

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as opposed to just looking

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for some kind of connection.