The Mobile applications (Apps) are extremely fun, but cumulatively absorb much of your time and distract you from your work. It takes more than the willpower to control your appetite for these applications. For a start, you need to understand how they work, and why they are extremely addictive.
Why You Should Be Wary of Your Applications
Many apps have fun, while some help you stay in touch with your friends and family.
But there is a darker side of applications that many of us do not know. For example, we spend a lot more time than we think we spend. Such as says Nielsen, today we spend 65% more time per month using applications than we did just two years ago. By the end of 2013, on average, we have passed 30 hours and 15 minutes per month using applications. This is almost two whole days a month.
If you need further evidence that we are addicted to our applications and phones, analyst Mary Meeker reports that on average we check our 150 phone numbers every day on our report May 2013 Internet Trends Report.
Flurry Analytics defines someone who uses "Mobile Addict" as a "mobile addict." applications more than 60 times a day. Based on their data from 500.000 apps to 1.3 billion Appliances as of March 2014 they saw the number of “Mobile Addicts” increase 123% between 2013 and 2014. In March 2014, there were 176 million “Mobile Addicts”, up from 79 million in March 2013.
photo pacific54.com
In case the manufacturers of the previous technology wanted to, let them products the most attractive, they didn't have the data or the algorithms to the extent they have them today developers of the app. Developers can track any interaction you have with the app, and use that data to make their products more addictive.
Of course, the solution is not to throw away all of our applications. They are extremely convenient and offer great benefits but also joy in our lives. It is also more and more useful. It looks very much like alcohol and how you want to use it. Alcohol is potentially addictive, but you can enjoy it in healthy, controlled doses.
Apps are not passive (by default). They are constantly causing you through your inbox and Push Notifications. Apps are designed to be addictive, designed to take control of your time and energy.
Apps interrupt your life with triggers
Are our reactions to the sound of a text, a notification, or a phone vibration in our pocket look like this? which is described by Pavlov with the experiment of. Apps developers design special hooks to draw your attention back to your mobile device.
Nir Eyal writes in his blog that these shares, emails, or links create associations between the app and your behaviors and feelings. You'll start to feel more and more compelled to use the app whenever you feel a certain way. (For example, when you're somewhere and you're bored, you'll almost instinctively take it off phone your). Before you know it you will be using the app more and maybe all day. You have formed a new habit.
It is tempting to react immediately whenever your cell phone starts ringing, but you need to learn to control your impulses. Apps don't want you to think (designers and developers are obsessed with removing the "cognitive burden" - which is the delay between Getting an alert and succumbing to the temptation to look at your phone).
A good way to deal with the problem is to ban push notifications from applications that you occasionally check.
If you want to keep Push Notifications, but you've repeatedly found yourself waking up in the evening, put your phone in a separate room, and buy an alarm clock.
External stimuli can be relatively easy to ignore or overcome. However, it is very likely that you have built an emotional or personal relationship with your applications. For example, you can use Facebook when you bother, the Flipboard, when you feel that you do not have someone to talk to a social event,
The next time you use your phone, try to locate the specific internal impulses that led you to it. It could be a feeling, find out what beliefs support your inner impulses.
Apps Want to invest energy in them
When you connect to a friend on Facebook, follow someone on Twitter, or connect with someone on LinkedIn, your experience with these services will be better the next time you use them. This is exactly what applications require. They want to invest time and energy to perfect your experience.
For example, if you have 1.000 friends on Facebook, but you have 50 only from their phone numbers or emails, you will continue to use Facebook to stay in touch with them. The more you upload photos to the network, the more you increase your dependence on it, because if you stop using it, you will not be able to access these valuable photos.
If possible, pick up the email addresses or phone numbers of your closest friends and acquaintances. Keep copies of the content you want on your hard drive. Similarly, do not upload information unless it is absolutely necessary, or make sure you know how to get your data back.
Apps reward you to get you back
Apps use rewards with points, causing different kinds and emotional tensions. The unpredictable nature of these variable rewards is forcing you. You are focused on trying to get the next reward. Your apps reward you with feelings of consistency, relief and excitement.
Apps can be very entertaining, but do not forget their strength. They can cause your attention, lure you, steal your time and energy. They will reward you every time you use them.
As a first step, then, it would be good to understand how they work. Use your apps, do not let the apps use you.
