Are You Addicted To Your Phone?

[Voiceover] We love our screens.

They connect us in unprecedented ways

but are they leaving us update-addicted,

glass-tapping junkies in the process.

(upbeat music)

On a typical day, the average person will

check their phone 85 times.

More than half of those uses will come in short bursts,

lasting 30 seconds or less.

In total we'll be changed to our phones

for five hours during the day.

Twice as long as we're likely to think we're using them.

In the office it's estimated that employees spend as much as

28 percent of their work days on social media

and non-work related tasks.

And it typically takes 20 minutes to return

to the original task after an interruption.

One of the reasons we keep reaching for our phones

is that when we get a text or refresh a website

it excites neurons in an area of the mid-brain,

which in turn releases dopamine into

the brains' pleasure sensors.

A similar process enables nicotine, gambling

and cocaine addictions; although in higher amounts.

Which is why it's hard to resist your phone in the car.

49 percent of Americans say that they text while behind

the wheel despite 46 states having laws that ban it.

One in every four accidents involve someone

using a cellphone and nine Americans are killed

everyday from distracted driving.

Once device use begins to effect our relationships

and physical health it's classified as internet addiction.

This, American Psychological Association

recognized condition, is estimated to affect six percent

of the global population.

However, one study of American college students found

the number could be as high as 26.3 percent.

Although innocuous sounding, internet addiction

may have very real affects on the brain.

A study of internet addicted video gamers revealed

several small regions in the subject's brains

actual shrunk from long term excessive video game playing.

In some cases as much as 10 to 20 percent.

One of the affected areas, the left posterior limb

of the internal capsule is linked to cognitive

and executive functions.

This could impair decision-making abilities, including

the choice to log off and return to the real world.

Ah, the real world, where we do things like go to the park,

meet friends for dinner, get drinks on a date and

check our phones incessantly during all those activities.