Reducing daily smartphone use through positive reinforcement and self-control

Running head: SELF CONTROL
Reducing daily smartphone use through positive reinforcement and self-control
Name of the Student
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SELF CONTROL1
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.

SELF CONTROL2
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