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A study out of the University of B.C.’s Okanagan campus has found a positive link between being mindful of oneself and a reduction in problematic smartphone use.
The research, published in the Mindfulness journal earlier this fall, analyzed dozens of other studies that involved over 38,000 participants to see if there was a link between mindfulness and excessive or uncontrolled smartphone use that interferes with daily life.
Susan Holtzman, an associate professor of psychology at UBC Okanagan and the lead author of the study, said there’s already been decades of research showing that mindfulness can be really helpful for people struggling with mental health challenges and addictions.
“What we found was a pretty robust, reliable association between mindfulness and problematic smartphone use,” she told CBC News.
“In other words, the better able people are to be more present and aware of what’s going on inside of them — both their emotions and thoughts, as well as what’s going on around them — those individuals tend to have a healthier relationship with their phone.”
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Will social media bans and restrictions make teens safer?
BC Today host Michelle Eliot is joined by Carmi Levy, a technology analyst, who argues Instagram’s new teen user restrictions — or Australia’s incoming social media ban for people under 16 — won’t fix the harms from social media use. Instead, Levy says families need to find ways to get value out of social media, while avoiding the risks.
Holtzman says that mindfulness can allow people to be aware of their feelings, and interrupt the mindless habit of checking their phones to scroll through social media feeds or short video apps.
She also says that being mindful of one’s emotions can allow one to stop using a smartphone compulsively simply to deal with stress.
“[Mindfulness] helps us recognize that, you know what? Being stressed — having these negative, unpleasant emotions — is just part of being a human,” the professor said.
The professor is encouraging anyone concerned with their smartphone use to employ the “STOP” technique, which she describes as a simple mindfulness technique:
Stop for just a moment.Take a breath.Observe how you’re feeling.Proceed, but only if you have a purpose in picking up your phone.
Holtzman’s study has caveats, however, given that it analyzed a broad swath of research that employed a number of different methods to study the link between mindfulness techniques and problematic smartphone use.
“Researchers are encouraged to employ more rigorous methods to capture the complex and dynamic nature of mindfulness and [problematic smartphone use],” the study concludes.
WATCH | Study looks at social media’s effect on young minds:
SFU study looks at social media’s effects on young minds
A new study underway at Simon Fraser University takes a look at social media’s effects on child moral and behavioural development. Joanna Peplak, an assistant professor of developmental psychology at SFU and director of Grow to Care Lab speaks to Dan Burritt about the ongoing study.
Correction: A previous version of this video description incorrectly stated that the study found a close link between high levels of social media use and psychiatric disorders. In fact, the study is ongoing and data has not yet been compiled.
Clinical therapist Gary Su, who is based in Calgary with the Venture Academy, regularly provides counselling for teenagers who are dealing with mental health challenges.
Su, who wasn’t involved in the UBC study, said that excessive electronic usage has been one of the main sources of conflict for the majority of clients he works with.
The therapist noted that smartphones are designed to keep their owners in a loop of constantly scrolling to deliver your brain with dopamine, a hormone that makes us feel good.
“It’s just kind of a perfect storm too — [it’s] very easy for anyone, including you and me, to keep watching or keep scrolling on our cellphone because it hits the right spot in our brain,” he said.
Problematic smartphone use hasn’t been officially classified as an addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the reference book used by mental health professionals around the world.
“But if it’s getting to the point that you’re not finishing your homework, it starts to affect your sleep at night, it starts to create a lot of conflict between you and your family — I think that’s when, you know, we need to draw a line,” Su said.