What sleeps next to you at night? If you’re like 71% of the population, the answer is your phone. So, it only makes sense that 40% of people check their phone in the middle of the night. A habit which certainly doesn’t lead to better sleep, considering that a phone screen’s blue light suppresses the brain’s secretion of melatonin.
The scary reality is smartphone use can become an addiction and where we find ourselves is a world where smartphones exist as a public health crisis. Looking for proof? Consider these unsettling facts:
- Smartphone use and depression are correlated.
- 45% of people in the United States would rather give up sex for one year than give up their phone.
- Teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on electronic devices are 71% more likely to have suicide risk factors than those with 1-hour use.
- Teens with smartphone addictions are more likely to drink alcohol, use tobacco, and have poor diets.
- More people have smartphones than toilets worldwide.
- 20% of people between ages 18 and 34 have used their smartphones during sex.
The campaign
Recognizing the serious mental health risk posed by excessive smartphone use, Halcyon launched a campaign to raise awareness about the consequences of smartphone addiction. The goal: to get people to reconsider their own habits when it comes to smartphone use and, simply put, unplug.
We put together a 10-question quiz with the intent of informing people of the facts and prompting them to reassess their phone-routine. We put the quiz in front of people from Spain, Portugal, Poland, Ireland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and New Zealand, obtaining 241 responses.
The results
A success! The campaign succeeded in informing people about the risks of overusing your smartphone as well as encouraging them to decrease their smartphone dependence. The best part is that 96.95% of respondents who completed the quiz clicked on the post survey resource.
To sum it up:
- 78.8% of people who took the quiz said they care more about the smartphone addiction problem after what they learned.
- 77.6% of people who took the quiz said they’d be more inclined to change the way they live to address the smartphone addiction problem.
- $0.56 was the cost per resource link click.
What you can do
If you want to learn more and help reduce smartphone addiction, just follow these simple steps:
- Take a look at our quiz!
- At the end of the quiz, click on the resource and get some easy tips on how you can promote the digital well-being of yourself and those around you.
- Share! Tell your friends what you’ve learned, send them the quiz and help increase awareness about smartphone addiction.
- Donate! When you donate to The Halcyon Movement, you help us continue to bring awareness to major social dilemmas like smartphone addiction with the hope of inspiring change.
Click here to donate.
