The smartphone is not the enemy: scientists have proposed a new look at digital habits

Smartphones have become such a familiar part of everyday life that it is almost impossible to completely abandon them. They are needed for work, study, communication, banking, and access to government services. At the same time, some digital habits can take away attention and turn into a form of constant content consumption.

The researchers suggest looking at this problem not through an addiction model, but through a comparison with food: not all digital activity is equally useful, but its content, quantity, and circumstances of use are important. About why a smartphone is compared to "digital junk food," how this approach differs from the idea of digital addiction, and how to learn how to build healthier relationships with technology, see the Izvestia article.

Not every screen is equally "harmful"

In this model, technology is compared to substances that cause addiction: it is assumed that a person gradually loses control over the use of the device and continues to use it, despite the negative consequences. This leads to an obvious solution — a kind of "digital detox", that is, the most complete rejection of gadgets or individual services.

However, scientists whose research results are published in the journal The Conversation consider this analogy to be too simple. Unlike alcohol or tobacco, digital technologies cannot simply be eliminated from life. A smartphone can be both a source of entertainment, a work tool, a way to maintain relationships with other people, and a necessity for solving everyday issues. For example, a person can spend ten hours a day at a computer, but a significant part of that time is spent working, not mindlessly consuming content.

Therefore, the authors propose another metaphor — food. It is impossible to refuse food, but it can be conditionally divided by composition, quantity and situation of consumption. Similarly, it's not just the number of hours in front of the screen that matters, but what exactly a person does with digital devices. A long video game with friends, work correspondence, an online course, and an endless stream of short videos formally relate to screen time, but create a completely different experience.

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"Digital fast food" can be different too

Comparing technology with food allows us to abandon the idea that there is a single category of "bad screen time." The conventional digital equivalent of sweets is content that is easy to consume in large portions and almost effortlessly: an endless feed of publications, short videos, notifications, and other formats designed to keep the user coming back. But even they can perform different functions: a person can have fun, relax, keep in touch with friends, or just try to distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts.

That is why the authors suggest taking into account the context and purpose of use. If a smartphone helps a person study, earn money, communicate, or solve specific tasks, a large amount of screen time in itself does not indicate a problem. On the contrary, a few hours of uncontrolled scrolling may take less time, but it has a stronger effect on the ability to concentrate and switch to other activities.

Individual studies confirm that it's not just the total amount of device usage that matters. For example, work published in Computers in Human Behavior has shown that social media notifications can temporarily disrupt cognitive tasks. In the experiment, information processing slowed down by about seven seconds after the notification appeared, and the severity of the effect depended on the frequency of interaction with the smartphone and the intended significance of the message.

It turns out that the problem may lie not so much in the device itself as in the constant fragmentation of attention. Even if a person doesn't spend a lot of time using one app, regular notification checks can make it difficult to focus on work, conversation, or other activity.

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Why just counting the hours is not enough

The authors suggest treating screen time in much the same way that nutrition experts treat calorie counting. The number itself can be a useful guideline, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Two people can spend the same five hours in front of the screen, but one will work, study and talk to loved ones, and the other will spend most of the time aimlessly switching between applications.

Therefore, instead of one question — "How much time do I spend on my phone?" — it is useful to ask yourself a few others: why am I using it now, does this activity help me, how do I feel after it and whether it replaces something else. For example, a person can turn to a smartphone when he is bored, anxious or lonely, gradually turning the device into a universal way to cope with unpleasant conditions.

At the same time, the very idea of "digital food" does not mean that all entertainment content should be considered harmful. As with nutrition, a combination of different types of activity is important. Chatting with friends via video can maintain social connections, online gaming can be a way to spend time together, and watching a movie can be a relaxing experience. The problem begins when a particular type of digital behavior displaces sleep, work, study, physical activity, or live communication.

Interestingly, researchers of digital behavior are increasingly paying attention to the quality of use, not just the duration. In a study in the journal Social Sciences & Humanities Open with the participation of 18 adults, scientists divided smartphone use into effective, ineffective and problematic and found that the transition from one type of behavior to another depends on several factors at once — motivation, situation, habits and a person's ability to regulate their own use.

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How to arrange not a detox, but a digital diet

If you perceive a smartphone as a necessary part of modern life, completely abandoning it really is not the most realistic solution. The authors suggest rather changing the conditions of digital consumption. At the level of the devices and applications themselves, this can mean disabling unnecessary notifications, limiting the most distracting services, and making a more informed choice about when and why a person picks up a phone.

According to the researchers, the responsibility should not be entirely on the user. If the product was originally designed to hold attention for as long as possible, self-control alone may not be enough. Therefore, the authors also talk about the need to regulate digital platforms: more transparent information about the data collected, recommendation algorithms, and psychological mechanisms that are used to retain an audience.

Here again, the analogy with the food industry arises. Public health depends not only on whether a particular person is able to give up sweets, but also on the composition of products, the rules of their labeling, advertising and accessibility. According to the authors, a similar system can work with digital technologies: personal habits, platform design, educational programs, and government regulation are important at the same time.

Thus, the idea of a "digital diet" involves not a complete abandonment of smartphones, but a more conscious distribution of digital attention. The phone remains a necessary tool, but a person can choose which digital "products" they really need, and which ones just take time and attention. In this approach, the main question is not "how much screen time is acceptable," but "what role technology plays in my life."