Summary
Excessive screen use can affect attention, mood, sleep, and interpersonal relationships. This article explores how smartphones influence the brain’s reward system, their connection with anxiety and loneliness, and practical ways to develop a healthier and more conscious relationship with technology.
What is the first thing you do as soon as you wake up? And the last thing you do before going to sleep? Nowadays, many of us would answer: checking WhatsApp, social media, the news…
Today, screen use is fully integrated into our daily routines, and smartphones have become an essential and beneficial tool for working, communicating, and staying informed.
However, we are increasingly becoming aware of the negative effects that constant screen use can have. We notice that we develop an almost compulsive relationship with our phones, that spending too many hours on them can lead to mental fatigue (the feeling of “brainrotting”), and that they can interfere with our ability to concentrate on other activities.
Yet even when we feel this way, we keep returning to them again and again.
Without demonizing the use of technology, in this article we will explore the effects screens can have on our mental health and how we can relate to them in a more conscious way.
Why is it so hard to put our phones down?
Many readers have probably already heard about the relationship between screens and dopamine production in our brains: we are increasingly aware that our difficulty separating ourselves from our phones goes beyond simple willpower.
It is not just a perception among users. Employees from major technology companies have acknowledged that social media platforms and apps are deliberately designed to keep us hooked. As Tristan Harris, a former designer at Google, has pointed out, these systems do not work “by accident, but by design”, since their business model depends on the amount of time users remain connected.
Science supports the personal experience many of us have with our phones: every notification, every like, and every reel activates our brain’s reward system generating neurotransmitters associated with pleasure and motivation (Aguirre-Peñafiel & Matar-Khalil, 2025). This immediate brain response reinforces the behavior and makes smartphone use almost automatic.
It can be truly frustrating to want to reduce our phone use and still feel almost like “slaves to our device”. At the same time, it can be difficult to distinguish between healthy screen use and the point at which it becomes problematic.
Between healthy and problematic screen use
In the scientific literature, excessive screen use is often linked to behavioral addictions, as some smartphone-related behaviors show characteristics similar to substance addictions (Augner, Vlasak, Aichhorn, & Barth, 2023).
Although there is still no clear consensus in current research regarding the most appropriate term to refer to this phenomenon (mobile phone addiction, excessive use, dependence, or problematic use), studies generally conclude that the most common signs of harmful use include:
- Constantly checking the phone, messages, or notifications.
- Feeling anxious when the phone is not nearby or cannot be used.
- Spending more time than intended on apps or social media.
- When this behavior begins to affect relationships, work or studies.
It is not so much the device itself that generates addictive behavior, but rather the activities it enables, such as messaging through apps like WhatsApp, social media use or gaming. Each of these activities may have specific and different implications for mental health (Barrera & Cácaro, 2022).
In general, excessive use can affect several dimensions of well-being (Lozano-Blasco, Robres, & Sánchez, 2022):
- Social: while it provides online connectivity, it can simultaneously reduce the quality of real-life interpersonal relationships.
- Cognitive: it can affect processes such as attention, memory, emotional regulation, and decision-making.
- Emotional: it may increase stress and irritability, as well as reinforce negative emotions such as sadness, frustration, or low self-esteem.
Studies show that problematic smartphone use is associated with a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances.
The antidote to loneliness, boredom or emptiness
Beyond the neural factors that influence mobile phone use, what does its constant use have to do with our emotional world?
As with other addictive behaviors, excessive use may not be an isolated problem, but rather a way of coping with or avoiding deeper internal conflicts or emotional distress (Serrano-Puche, 2015). In the case of smartphones, some studies highlight their relationship with several psycho-emotional processes:
- Loneliness and the need to belong: In response to feelings of loneliness, increasingly present in a social context that tends toward individualism, we may experience a sense of relief by accessing immediate connection with others. However, it is important to consider the risk of abandoning offline spaces for social interaction, which tend to contribute more significantly to our social and emotional well-being.
- Emptiness, apathy, and anxiety: States such as apathy, boredom, emptiness, or a lack of meaning, often present in depressive conditions, may encourage the use of the phone as a form of emotional anesthesia. At the same time, stress and anxiety, characterized by hypervigilance, may translate into compulsive checking of the device.
- Identity construction: Virtual environments, such as social media, have become spaces where we shape and display our identity. By allowing the construction of a “virtual self,” identity can be influenced by dynamics specific to the digital environment: the search for approval, social comparison, or the pressure to maintain a certain image.
Understanding the smartphone as part of our everyday lives invites us to reflect consciously on the space it occupies in our psyche: the functions it serves, the positive and negative effects it may have on our personal lives and well-being, and how it impacts our valuable time and daily enjoyment.
What are we teaching children and adolescents?
Excessive screen use has a particularly strong impact on children and adolescents, affecting learning, attention, and emotional well-being, while also exposing them to sensitive content that they may not always be able to process appropriately.
According to neuroscientist Michel Desmurget in his book The Digital Cretin Factory (2020), children from the age of two spend on average almost three hours a day in front of screens. Between the ages of 8 and 12, screen time reaches nearly five hours a day, and between 13 and 18 it can exceed six hours daily.
This phenomenon represents a public health issue (Augner et al., 2023) that requires policies and regulation, such as age limits and parental controls. In Spain, new regulations are being promoted to better protect minors in digital environments, and several regions have adopted measures that limit mobile phone use in schools.
Even with regulations in place, families continue to play a crucial role. Much of children’s learning occurs through imitation, which makes it especially important to model healthy digital habits and accompany children in developing a balanced relationship with screens (Nagata, Paul, Yen, Smith-Russack, Sha, Al-Shoaibi… & Baker, 2025).
Keys to a Healthier Use
- Create phone-free spaces: Protect spaces free from mobile phones and promote screen-free social settings to encourage face-to-face relationships and authentic communication.
- Learn to tolerate frustration and boredom without turning to the phone: Boredom is not only natural but also beneficial for creativity and self-reflection.
- Practice mindful activities: Consciously engage in activities where digital devices are not involved, such as reading, cooking, or playing board games.
- Reconnect with the body: Dependence on smartphones can make us forget that we have a body through which we access comforting and pleasurable sensations. Reconnecting with bodily experiences can help restore balance.
- Strengthen offline self-esteem and identity: Who am I outside of screens? Cultivating self-esteem through activities, relationships, and experiences beyond the digital environment is essential.
- Engage in personal reflection: Why do I use my phone so much? What role do I want it to play in my life?
The relationship between problematic smartphone use and mental health often takes the form of a vicious cycle: psychological vulnerability increases the risk of screen dependence, while excessive use can, in turn, intensify psychological distress.
Beyond the necessary social and political regulations, a personal exercise in awareness is essential: asking ourselves what role the smartphone plays in our lives, whether we use it to avoid uncomfortable emotions, and toward which other experiences (such as face-to-face relationships, creative activities or connection with the body) we might redirect our desire in order to give screens the place we truly want them to have.
Referencias:
Aguirre-Peñafiel y Matar-Khalil (2025). Mecanismos neurobiológicos del uso problemático del teléfono inteligente en adolescentes: una revisión sistemática. CES Psicología, 18(3), 30-43.
Augner, Vlasak, Aichhorn, y Barth (2023). The association between problematic smartphone use and symptoms of anxiety and depression—a meta-analysis. Journal of Public Health, 45(1), 193-201.
Barrera y Cácaro (2022). Adicción al móvil e Impulsividad: ¿Cuánto tardas en responder un mensaje de Whatsapp?. Informació psicològica, (123), 24-38.
Desmurget (2022). La fábrica de cretinos digitales. Booket.
Lozano-Blasco, Robres, y Sánchez (2022). Internet addiction in young adults: A meta-analysis and systematic review. Computers in Human Behavior, 130, 107201.
Nagata, Paul, Yen, Smith-Russack, Shao, Al-Shoaibi… y Baker (2025). Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use. Pediatric Research, 97(1), 403-410.
Serrano-Puche (2015). Emociones en el uso de la tecnología: un análisis de las investigaciones sobre teléfonos móviles. Observatorio (OBS*), 9(4), 101-112.
https://elpais.com/educacion/2025-09-12/el-curso-escolar-comienza-con-los-moviles-casi-desterrados-de-las-aulas-asi-queda-en-cada-autonomia.html
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Why is it so difficult to stop checking our phones?
Apps and social media platforms are designed to capture attention through notifications and instant rewards that stimulate the brain’s reward system.
2. How can I tell if my phone use is becoming problematic?
Common signs include constantly checking the phone, feeling anxious without it, or noticing negative effects on work, studies, or relationships.
3. Can excessive screen use affect mental health?
Yes. Research links problematic smartphone use with higher risks of anxiety, depression, stress, and sleep disturbances.
4. How do screens affect children and adolescents?
Excessive screen exposure may impact attention, learning, and emotional wellbeing, while also increasing exposure to inappropriate content.
5. How can we build a healthier relationship with technology?
Helpful strategies include creating screen-free spaces, engaging in offline activities, tolerating boredom, and reflecting on the role technology plays in daily life.
About the author
Emma is a health psychologist at Sinews. She treats adults and adolescents who come for consultation for problems such as anxiety, depression, grief, self-esteem, emotional self-esteem, emotional dependency… In addition, she is a specialist in the treatment of trauma. She performs her interventions from an integrative approach, which includes an exploration of primary bonding relationships from the perspective of the attachment theory, as well as an approach to the problem from a cognitive-behavioral approach to the problem from a cognitive-behavioral perspective, using effective techniques according to each patient’s needs.
Division of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Coaching
Psychologist
Adults and adolescents
Languages: English and Spanish