![Harry Wallop tries out Periscope outside Buckingham Palace](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03260/PeriscopeWallop_3260334b.jpg?imwidth=680)
Are you addicted to your mobile phone?
Self-confessed 'nomophobic' (no-mobile-phone phobia) Harry Wallop looks at ways to cut back on his smart-phone addiction.
![Harry Wallop tries out Periscope outside Buckingham Palace](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03260/PeriscopeWallop_3260334b.jpg?imwidth=680)
'What are you doing?” my wife asks suspiciously, as she attempts to kick me out of the bed to make the children’s breakfast.
“Just checking the time,” I reply, putting my phone down.
It is a lie.
The very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning – while I am still in bed – is to pick up my phone, press the Twitter app and see what’s going on in the world. It is also the very last thing I do before turning off the light at night.
Yes, I am addicted to my smartphone and its incredible, near-instant stream of news, gossip, analysis and pictures of weasels hitching lifts on the back of woodpeckers. I am, to use an awful neologism, “nomophobic”. That is, I have a fear of having no mobile phone.
![Woman with smartphone in bed - British Gas](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02882/woman-bed-smartpho_2882323b.jpg?imwidth=680)
This is a model, not Harry Wallop. His sheets are not that crisp.
I am not alone. According to the latest report by Ofcom, the communications industry regulator, which released figures this week, the average amount spent online has more than doubled from 9.9 hours a week 10 years ago to 20.5 hours.
Meanwhile, a separate report suggests that the average Briton checks their phone 50 times in one day. And, in America, researchers have released a 20-point questionnaire to establish quite how addicted you are to your phone. To the first question – “How strongly do you agree with: 'I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone?’ ” – I answer “Very”.
During major news cycles, not least the general election, I can easily justify my appalling habit. It is crucial that I immediately know every titbit of idiocy our politicians have inflicted upon us. I am a journalist, after all.
![Turned off: Many of Britain’s 30 million smartphone owners think nothing of checking Twitter during a conversation - The new global addiction: smartphones](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02249/phoneaddiction_2249742b.jpg?imwidth=680)
But for the great majority of the time, it is just not necessary to check if anyone has found Ed Miliband’s stone of pledges, or to see if my beautiful picture of a fern has been liked on Instagram, or to see how many times my witty aperçus have been retweeted.
I can’t undertake the most basic task – from making the children’s pack lunches, to cleaning my teeth – without swiping the screen and seeing if anything has happened. Anything, other than the task or conversation in hand.
I am aware that this is a problem. My three-year-old has been known to say, “Get off your phone, Daddy”, as I nominally oversee bathtime. In a choice between him drowning and my phone getting waterlogged, it’s a close run thing.
Dr Richard Graham, is a consultant adolescent psychiatrist at Nightingale Hospital and an expert in technology addiction. He says the problem has become much worse in recent years because of the increasing number of devices that can be used to connect to the internet, from tablet computers to wearable tech, such as a Fitbit wristband which measures your heart-rate. Only a couple of years ago, if you had left your phone at home, you would have been stranded. Less so now. Indeed, despite the explosion in social media and internet use, Ofcom does record a small drop in the take up of smartphones during 2014.
![Fitbit Force, Jawbone Up, Fitbug Orb, Nike FuelBand SE...Four fitness trackers are shown in this photograph, in New York, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02776/fitbit_2776467b.jpg?imwidth=680)
Wearable technology, including the FitBit (extreme left)
Dr Graham recommends addicts, like me, should consider going cold turkey for at least a few days. “Challenge of yourself to think about a period of at least a weekend, ideally a long weekend, when you are not going to use the device. And get others to join in along with you. It is really important to get in control of the tool, rather than the other way around.”
In theory, I am all for digital detox holidays, and many travel companies have started specialising in hiring out villas where there is no Wi‑Fi and the phone-signal is blocked. In practice, however, I worry I will behave like an increasingly frantic Al Pacino in The Insider, wading further out into the sea in order to get a signal on his phone.
Also, from a practical point of view, now data roaming charges have plummeted in Europe, using your phone on holiday is a great deal cheaper and less bulky than using a traditional map or guide book.
One of his other pieces of advice, however, is something I am trying to do. “I’m very keen on no screenlight an hour before sleep. Because some of our decision-making and concentration problems may be as much about sleep deficit,” says Dr Graham. This is especially important for children, with developing brains.
Phone addiction can become just as damaging as an addiction to alcohol or gambling, he warns. “Think of the cost of what you are doing, in terms of your relationships and whether others are upset that you are spending too much time on the device.”
No more phone at bathtime, I promise. Unless it is a general election. Or a World Cup. Or if they find the Ed Milistone.
Take our quiz to find out how addicted to your smart phone you are:
If you answered yes to 5 or fewer, you do not have a problem
6-10: try to cut back on your usage
10-15: you have a bit of a problem
16-20: your addiction to your phone is out of control