Reducing daily smartphone use through positive reinforcement and self-control

This self-implemented behavioural control programme was developed in order to systematically decrease the daily use of smartphone and increase reading habits as well as sleep. The results indicated that through the use of positive reinforcements and supporting additional activities, I was able to bring down my use of smartphones by at least half the time of the normal usage.

Running head: SELF CONTROL
Reducing daily smartphone use through positive reinforcement and self-control
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Abstract
This self-implemented behavioural control programme was developed in order to
systematically decrease the daily use of smartphone and increase reading habits as well as
sleep. I have used myself as a participant in the study and used my smartphone usage record
to build a weeklong daily goals which are positively reinforced, in order to cut down my use
of smartphone. The results indicated that through the use of positive reinforcements and
supporting additional activities, I was able to bring down my use of smartphones by at least
half the time of the normal usage.

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Introduction
Smartphone addiction is almost as new as the innovation in cell phone technology
itself which has given the smartphones its due status nowadays. In the case of large scale
smartphone use and addiction, most of the teenagers are identified to be affected by the
phenomenon (Haug et al., 2015). Social conditioning as well as social learning has been
identified as one of the key influencers of people when it comes to events and attitudes that
follow a socially accepted pattern (Jennings & Henderson, 2014). Alternately, Conley (2013)
refers to the herd mentality that is at play in the minds of social animals like humans that asks
them to follow specific norms and regulations pertaining to their behaviour owing to which
they can call themselves a part of a socialised group. This directly correlates with the attitude
of smartphone use behaviour that is seen in teenagers in a present day context as a form of
following a trend established in the society.
According to Samaha and Hawi (2016), there are significant impacts of smartphone
addiction on the life and mentality of an individual. They have identified that prolonged use
of smartphones often result in increased stress, declining academic performance and
absolutely no satisfaction with life (Samaha & Hawi, 2016). In the present study, I am
considering myself a participant as I have been addicted to my smartphone for a prolonged
period of time. In a screen on time application that I had downloaded and installed on my
smartphone prior to the study, I was shown that the average time that I spend on my phone
exceeds 8 hours a day with more than 5 hours spent on chat and social media services like
WhatsApp and Instagram and a daily average of one hour spent playing mobile games and
one hour browsing YouTube and listening to music. After consulting a few studies, I was
able to identify that my case of smartphone addiction can be attributed not only top the social
conditioning phenomenon, but also to the fact that the information and entertainment that
smartphone provides me with is something I highly value (Emanuel et al., 2015). Thus the

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need for more information and entertainment was the antecedent in this case. The long term
influences that I was able to notice was decreased reading time, decreased social interaction,
low levels of sleep and deteriorating health and eyesight (Tossell et al., 2015). These formed
the consequences of the case.
In the self-behavioural control programme, I have set a goal of bringing down my
smartphone use time by at least 50% in the first week which is substantiated by a daily
decrease in smartphone use by at least one hour on the first day, followed by increasing the
count by half an hour on the subsequent days. I identified this as a realistic and attainable
goal (Kazdin, 2012). The aim of this program is to decrease my daily use of smartphone and
improve other aspects of lifestyle including reading, communicating with others and getting
proper sleep. I have hypothesised that by using positive reinforcement, I will be able to bring
down the amount of hours I spend on my smartphone and improve my lifestyle accordingly.
Methods
Participant
I selected myself, a ….. year old university student, as the subject of this self-control
programme. I have selected myself primarily because it is a self-directed behaviour
modification programme and also because I have focused on my behaviour while
generatingthe research question.
Procedure
For this programme, I used my smartphone, a Oneplus 5T 2017 model, and the
Microsoft launcher which I downloaded from the Google play Store. The rationale behind
using the Microsoft launcher is that it comes with an in built screen on time indicator which
displays how much time has been spent on the phone and on which applications. The average
screen on time was recorded as 8 hours on a chart in my room. Afterwards, the chart was

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divided into 7 rows and three columns. With each column indicating days, no. of hours cut
and alternate activity done. The week prior to the main programme was used as a baseline
condition where the average screen on time was recorded and the average time of 8 hours per
day was provided to me. Based on that information, I was able to set an appropriate goal for
the first day and the subsequent days of the programme week. The first day goal was set at
reducing the time by 1 hour. So at the end of the day, the screen on time must display 7 hours
(approximate) of use. The subsequent daily goal was set at decreasing the time by half an
hour more from the previous day. So the goal for day 2 would be 1.5 hours, day 3 would be 2
hours and so on. This was considered an appropriate goal because it was achievable and was
realistic to me.
Controls and reinforcements
As control conditions, I implemented three alternate strategies. Firstly, I got a copy of
a fiction novel that I have wanted to read. I set a daily reading of 30 pages as an alternate
goal. I added extra one hour to my study schedule. I also added one hour of extra sleep to the
control factors.
The positive reinforcements include my favourite meal for dinner for each daily goal
and a 750 piece complex jigsaw puzzle set that I have been aiming to buy once the overall
goal is reached (McLeod, 2007).

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Results
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Hours spent on phone
Baseline programme
Fig 1: Daily hours spent on phone in Baseline vs Programme condition
As demonstrated, fig 1 indicates the no. of hours clocked on my smartphone during
the baseline condition and no. of hours clocked on the smartphone during the programme
condition. The hours were converted into decimal scores for easy representation. The baseline
condition shows that the daily hours clocked on smartphone hovered around eight hours
mostly. The programme condition showed that with each day, the subsequent daily hours
were brought down, first by an approximately one hour and the rest days by approximately
half an hour each added on to the previous days. The week end goal of 4 hours was reached at
the end.
.

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Non academic reading Academic reading Sleep
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Additional activities (Weekly hour log)
Baseline Programme
Fig 2: Weekly hours logged doing other activities (Baseline vs Programme condition)
The fig 2 indicates that there has also been a significant increase in the weekly hours spent
doing other activities as well. This indicates that the reduction in smartphone use is directly
correlated with the increase in frequency of other activities that are beneficial to the lifestyle
and are productive as well.
Discussion
By looking at the baseline data first, it was recorded that the smartphone use was
more or less around 8 hours. I was aware of the screen time indicator running in the
background but I tried to pay as less attention to it as possible. The reason behind that was to
prevent data and judgement bias. Even though it was very difficult at first, the subsequent
days made the process rather simpler. While coming to the main programme period, I found
that the initial days were again quite difficult to sustain but I tried to control myself as much
as I was able to. Therefore, the daily goals of cutting half an hour from the cumulative total
hours cut in the previous day was a beneficial and fruitful method for me.

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As discussed above, the prospect of being able to treat myself to my favourite meal
during dinner as a positive reinforcement (Watson & Tharp, 2013) served the goal of being
able to control my impulses effectively. This indicates that using reinforcements during a
self-behavioural modification study is quite effective when it comes to obtaining specific
goals (Payne & Dozier, 2013). Similarly, the Jigsaw puzzle set that I reinforced as a reward
for reaching the weekly goal was also beneficial in determining the efficacy of the
programme.
The results of this study supports the initial hypothesis that states that self-behaviour
management is fruitful and effective with positive reinforcements and short term goals
(Kazdin, 2012). There are certain limitations to this study as well. One of the key drawbacks
is that the study does not illustrate how effective the process will be during stressful
conditions, nor does it indicate whether an hour of extra usage during an emergency
condition would be considered a violation of the hypothesis. However overall, the study has
sufficiently elaborated that positive reinforcement can serve as an effective tool to develop
behavioural changes and habits.

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References
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