7 Ways to Prevent Smartphone from Ruining Your Relationships

Technology have both positive and negative impacts on our daily life. A decade back, no one would have imagined that the smartphones will take over the world. However, the fact today is that almost every one of us use phones for playing, calling and for many other purposes. Many of us are addicted and can’t live few minutes without looking at the phone. Though the digital revolution with smartphones helped us to live our lives comfortably, it also created its own problems. If you don’t use the smartphone smartly it could actually ruin your relationships and cause damage to your health. If you started feeling that smartphones have an effect on your relationships, then this article is for you. Read on further to find simple ways that you can prevent smartphone from running your relationships.

1. Don’t Rely on Apps for Chores

Nowadays, you can easily replace the regular chores and routines with the use of smartphones. There are apps for each and every activity that you can imagine. You can find apps in the App Store, starting from waking you up in the morning to make you sleep at the night. Though this is good, it makes you addicted to the use of phone and forget the people around. Kids and elderly people in your house will feel alone when you focus too much at the apps. Here are some simple stuffs you can avoid using the phone to overcome the problem.

• Start using pencil and paper for taking important notes or writing the grocery list when going to market.
• Use physical calculator instead of calculator apps on your phone.
• Use physical alarm for waking up in the morning.
• Share stories and memories with your kids at the night before sleep instead of switching on the bedtime stories on your smartphone’s app.

Initially you may have difficulties to overcome the smartphone usage. However, you will have fun when doing such stuffs. In fact, you can engage with the people around you to get help and share your opinions.

Related: 12 ways smartphones can help you in travel.

2. Turn off Notifications

Social apps, news and entertainment apps send unlimited notifications to distract your attention. The fact is that no one in this world either needs such a huge amount of information or remember everything in mind. The problem is that these apps will drive you running with the notifications without much use for you. In reality, this will drastically ruin relationships with your family, friends and relatives. Especially, when you are in a discussion with your wife or kid, focus on the conversation without looking at the notifications on your phone.

• Ensure to disable notifications in all unnecessary apps on your phone. The simplest way is to turn off all notifications on your phone and enable it only for the needed apps.
• Set the bedtime for sleep to disable any disturbances other than emergency calls from your favorite persons.

3. Don’t Join Groups

Being part of so many groups is really a disease with all the people nowadays. Earlier days it all started with Yahoo! and Google groups on the web. Now, it is spreaded to mobile world with WhatsApp, Facebook and many other social groups. It is common for a single person to be part of multiple groups formed by friends and colleagues from school, college and different work companies.   

We bet 99% of the group chats are useless and merely for time pass. The truth is that none of them in your group can help when you have a real life problem. In fact, many real life problems arise because of these group chats and following unnecessary people. For example, WhatsApp by default stores all media files in your smartphone’s photo library. If someone in the group sends a pornography picture, it will also store on your phone. If you have cloud or device sync, anyone having access to your devices can easily look at the pictures from the photo library. This can potentially ruin your personal relationship when your wife or kid find inappropriate pictures that you have received from a useless group.

Simply, quit from all the groups and start spending time in physical activities. Good idea is to follow you wife, kid or parent instead of following some unknown celebrity.

4. Spend Time with Friends and Family

Spending time and quality time are completely different. Many of us simply sit with family members while playing or chatting on the phone which is of no use. Turn off your phone or keep it in the home and go for a walk or dinner outside. Similarly, spend time your friends instead of only chatting with them in the phone. There are many physical activities you can do with your friends like trekking, running and playing indoor/outdoor games.     

It may be difficult at the start, however, start looking at the world outside along with your loved ones.

Related: 9 reasons why your smartphone overheat easily.

5. Keep No Phone Time and Zone

In addition to running your relationships, smartphones can also cause damage to your health. Many of us use the phone while at the bed without any lights and use headphone with louder voice. Game playing is another addictive reason people bring the phone everywhere they go.

• Turn off your phone from 10PM to 6AM to make sure you can sleepy peacefully.
• Never charge or keep alarm on your phone to avoid using the phone on bedroom.   

Use Screen Time or other features to track your phone usage time and take necessary actions accordingly.

6. Social Media Disease

In addition to groups, simply looking at the social media posts is another reason for people to look at the phone. There are enough social apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc. to waste your time. These apps send reminders, notifications and emails to tempt you to look at your phone. If you are addicted to social apps by scrolling the timeline, then it’s time to take a break. Plan for a vacation or physical gaming activity with your family or friends.

7. Enjoy the Moment

Most popular smartphones come with triple cameras with 48 megapixel quality. This eliminated the use of separate camera when you travel or move around. However, clicking hundreds of pictures which you will never see is of no use. Start cherishing the moment by encouraging your kid or love your wife. For sure, this love will last longer than your picture love.

Final Words

Follow the above things if you want smartphone from ruining your relationships. Once you started felling the happiness of spending time with people, probably you will never go back to your phone again.