In the TED talk with Robin Grebing, she discusses cell phone addiction. I found this TED talk very interesting. I don’t think any of us realize just how addicted we are to our phones, myself included. She talks about phantom vibrations, and maybe it was the power of suggestion but this happened to me as I write this blog post! This phenomenon is highly documented and even on Web MD, according to Grebing.

Grebing also talks about how cell phone addiction mirrors gambling addicts. She shows brain scans that indicate how cell phone addiction parallels drug addiction and activates the same reward centers. Gambling addicts are motivated by intermittent rewards, like hitting the jackpot occasionally. Cellphone addicts check their phone all the time in hopes they will have a new notification.

Grebing argues this is no mistake, and that social media and cell phones are designed this way. These creators want us to check our phones constantly and use their apps, and using these addictive methods is highly effective. We use our cellphones constantly, Grebing notes that many of us even use our cellphones as our alarm clocks making them the first thing we check in the morning.

I definitely agree with her. Even though it is a tough pill to swallow, I definitely am a bit addicted to my phone. I would never go somewhere without my phone, partially for safety reasons and partially because I would want to keep up with my messages. As much as we might not want to admit it, we are all addicts to our smartphones.