An expert says our phone use is physically altering our brains, damaging our relationships, draining our energy and reducing our overall wellbeing. Photo / 123rf
An expert says our phone use is physically altering our brains, damaging our relationships, draining our energy and reducing our overall wellbeing. Photo / 123rf
Half of NZ adults feel overrun by phone notifications, with 37% feeling overwhelmed, panicked, or anxious.
Expert says bombardments of notifications are harming wellbeing and relationships.
2degrees is urging control over notifications, highlighting the physical and mental impact of constant alerts.
A new study has revealed the shocking impact of phone use on our mental health: half of all New Zealanders over 18 now feel overrun by notifications on their phones and for Gen Z, the first generation to grow up entirely online, the problem is even worse, with 38% regularly feeling overwhelmed, panicked or anxious by their endless stream of notifications.
Perhaps even more surprising than the study’s revelations is the fact it was commissioned not by some do-gooder advocacy group, but by one of the country’s leading telcos.
“Phones are powerful tools for connection, but when notifications dictate our attention, we’re not using them on our terms,” says Mark Callander, chief executive of 2degrees. “We’re calling on Kiwis to take control of their notifications before notifications take control of them.”
Since the study, 2degrees has been working with Kathryn Berkett, a neuroscience and digital wellbeing expert, to get the word out about the damage phones can do.
Berkett says the notifications from phones trigger dopamine, making them highly addictive. She says our obsessions with our phones are physically altering our brains, damaging our relationships, draining our energy and reducing our overall wellbeing.
“We think we’re good at multitasking, but in reality, we’re task-switching, which drains our energy and reduces focus,” she says.
“Our attention is physically pulled away the moment we hear or see a ping.”
Berkett says that while the effect of our phones’ notifications on our attention spans is increasingly well-known, what’s not so well known is that those constant notifications are putting us into a heightened state of anticipation that’s harming both our brains and bodies.
Research from Common Sense Media in the United States shows teenagers receive an average of 237 notifications a day.
“We’re in a slight but activated state of stress. And the more our brain/body system is activated into stress, the less it can be in rest and repair and digestion and all that positive stuff.
“It’s like a marathon runner training their body to just stay in that little bit. And that’s where it looks like things like ADHD, anxiety disorder. We can literally train our bodies to stay in a hypervigilant, hyperaware mode, and that’s just purely because what the brain experiences is what the brain connects.”
Our relationships with our phones are also damaging our relationships with other people, Berkett says. Humans naturally seek experiences that deliver dopamine and novelty is one of the most powerful ways of triggering dopamine, and our phones are an exponentially greater source of novelty than our life partner could ever be.
“Phones will always be – in the moment – more addictive than a one-on-one relationship, but when we ask ourselves: ‘How did I feel after 20 minutes sitting with my partner and chatting, and how did I feel after 20 minutes on my phone? Gosh, I felt really bleurgh after 20 minutes on my phone, but it feels really nice when I’ve been sitting talking to you for 20 minutes.’ So we start to recognise the impact it’s having on our body.”
In 2019, Berkett gave a TedX talk in which she opened by comparing giving kids devices to giving them alcohol. Both, she said, are physically changing our brains and both could potentially cause addictions that last a lifetime.
Kiwi psychologist Kathryn Berkett believes it's important to keep kids off devices. Photo / 123rf
“I have a huge, increasing worry about the youngest generation coming through,” she says now.
“The toileting issues are ramping up. It’s not being able to toilet themselves, not being able to balance, not having the language, not coming ready to learn – but we’ve [also] got kids coming to ECE [early childhood education] not ready to play.
“So it’s literally changing the structure of the kids’ brains, and an inability to toilet has a lot to do with lack of movement, and lack of movement has a lot to do with screens. So there’s some huge implications coming through.”
As with any other addiction, Berkett says, if you want to break the damaging cycle of phone use, you’ve got to first understand the harm your behaviour is causing and then know how to stop the behaviour.
And the way to do that with your phone, she says, is to create a physical separation from it so that your brain learns to stop relentlessly seeking the chemical charge it can provide.
“If we set up an eating time, we’ll get hungry each day at the same time. If we set up a sleeping time [it’s the same] because our body likes that routine. So if every five minutes your phone’s been pinging, even when you stop that, your brain’s going: ‘Wait a minute, where’s that dopamine rush? I’m expecting that it should be coming.’ And you know where it comes from, so that’s why you pick up your phone.”
She often counsels parents wanting to break the cycle to put all household phones in a lockbox.
She also acknowledges that none of this is easy.
“It’s that conditioned response, that conditioning space, which we’ve got to work hard on.”
The survey, conducted on behalf of 2degrees by Pureprofile in October 2024, interviewed 506 New Zealanders aged 16 and over. It found:
