‘I spend 8 hours a day on my phone – I’m addicted’

A self-confessed phone addict who spends eight hours a day on his phone admitted to feeling panic and anxiety at the thought of not being able to communicate or scroll.

Charlotte Graham, from Lancashire, runs her own social media and marketing company but excessive phone use is infiltrating her personal time.

The 41-year-old mother of three said she felt “a little sick” when she reported how many hours she spent in front of her phone screen.

“I can spend up to eight hours a day; it’s easy to spend an hour in the morning and an hour at night doom scrolling and before you know it it’s eight or nine hours of screen time,” Ms Graham said. Independent.

“I pick up my phone to check the weather and it turns into Instagram and Instagram turns into reels,” she added.

He admitted that he had a nervous breakdown when he realized that there would be no Wi-Fi connection while he was on holiday in a caravan park with his family. He once even considered skipping a networking event because he was told he wouldn’t have internet access.

“I’m not very good at putting my phone on ‘do not disturb’ mode, it gives me anxiety. For me, there’s a need to be available,” she said.

Ms Graham tried setting time limits on social media and using a tree-growing app to keep her from opening her phone, but it didn’t work.

A year-long study of 6,000 people by Virgin Media O2 found that people in the UK spend around 1 hour and 26 minutes a day doomscrolling or mindlessly using their phones.

Over time, this amounts to roughly 523 hours per year, or approximately 41,000 hours over a lifetime; This is equivalent to approximately 1,670 days or 4.7 years spent unintentionally using your phone.

An estimated 14 million people in the UK spend more than half their time on their phone without a clear purpose, affecting their sleep and ability to switch off the phone.

More than four in ten (41 percent) say willpower alone is not enough to change their behavior, while a third (37 percent) say they are addicted to devices.

Ms Graham loves social media and doesn’t see phone use as entirely negative, but she recognizes that checking and scrolling can become habits and she can never leave them behind when going out.

He said: “I think as an adult you should be allowed to make your own informed decisions, but in my generation it wouldn’t be a bad thing if there was more awareness and more conversation. Social media shouldn’t be all consumer, it shouldn’t be the only thing that matters.”

While the UK government is planning to either ban under-16s from accessing social media or restrict children’s use of these platforms, there are suggestions that digital wellbeing should also extend to adults.

Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Eleanor Drage wrote a foreword for the work, explaining that the screens were designed to capture our attention.

“We often find ourselves thinking: I’m checking my emails, doing something I’m supposed to be doing, and then you’re doing something completely different,” Dr Drage said. Independent.

“We need to have these statistics so we can make technology better. Our policies for children started with these statistics, and we need to do the same for adults,” he added.

Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “The digital debate has focused solely on screen time, with a focus on parents and children. But more and more evidence shows we’re only looking at part of the picture, which is why we’re focusing more broadly on digital health. “Many adults are finding it difficult to switch off, losing sleep from scrolling, struggling to focus and spending time online in ways they never intended.

“The answer is not to blame individuals or abandon technology altogether. It is to recognize that healthier digital habits are something we all need to work on.”

As part of University of Cambridge research funded by Virgin Media O2, Dr Drage will track how Britons are using technologies such as Generative AI and its effects on health and wellbeing over the next five years.