Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

June• 2018 | 55

READER’S DIGEST

Joël Billieux, who studies the addic-

tive use of information and com-

munication technologies. “Research

suggests that when you receive noti-

ications, you generally check more

applications than just the one that

has sent the notiication.”

• BE ‘PRO-POCKETS’Encourage your
  partner to keep her unused phone in
  her pocket, not on the table. “When
  the phone is in sight, it becomes sa-
  lient to the person, even if they don’t
  consciously realise that their attention
  is divided,” Misra says. “Out of sight”
  may very well be “out of mind”.


• CITE USER STATSYour partner may
  not realise how much time he spends
  on his phone, but his phone tracks
  how much time he spends on each
  app. Ask him to check his numbers.
  “These make you realise the kind
  of time you are spending on your
  phone,” Kuss says. “Seeing that may
  decrease your use.”


• BUY YOUR PARTNER A WATCH
  hen they won’t have to reach for their
  phone to check the time. Says Billieux,
  “A recent study showed that people
  wearing a watch reduced their time
  spent using smartphones.”

injection of dopamine in your reward
centre in your brain. You want to have
it again. It’s like smoking a cigarette
or eating a sweet. Maybe from your
spouse you don’t get these rewards.”

A Hopeful Solution

If you’re tired of playing second iddle
to a handheld device and you’d like
to curtail a loved one’s smartphone
usage without a heated argument, try
these ideas:

• DETAIL YOUR NEEDSSpell out what
  you’d like – no phones at mealtime,
  perhaps, or no answering texts while
  you’re conversing – but speak calmly,
  and don’t accuse or blame. “Use more
  ‘I’ statements than ‘you’ statements,”
  Kuss says. “Say ‘I would like to spend
  more time with you,’ instead of ‘You
  spend all of your time on technology.’”


• NEGOTIATE FOR FEWER ALERTS

Your partner doesn’t just look at his
phone when he wants to; the phone
alerts him to check it whenever
something happens on social media.
If he disables the alerts, he’ll use his
phone less often.
“Notifications will increase your
actual use of the mobile phone,” says

SHOW BUSINESS

“I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as

they spell my name right.”

“Every crowd has a silver lining.”

P.T. BARNUM,CIRCUS OWNER AND REAL ‘THE GREATEST SHOWMAN’