I recently put an app on my smartphone to track how much time I spend looking at it each day.  There’s no way that STUPID app can possibly be right about my SMART phone usage!  It had the nerve to say that I spend almost 4 hours a day on my phone!  That’s just not possible!

After I calmed down, I realized that I spend approximately 45 minutes a day, which is almost an hour the last time I checked the watch on my smartphone, playing Wordle, Connections, Strands, sometime Sudoku and completing the Mini Crossword. No need to worry, right? After all, I read somewhere that playing word games and solving puzzles is good for the brain.

Not only that, now that I have the recipe app, Paprika, on my Smart Phone, I use it most days when I cook dinner.  It’s handy!  I can cook without fearing I might miss a phone call, text or email that couldn’t possibly wait until after dinner…just sayin’.  I mean smartphones are exceptionally helpful, they keep us connected, informed and you can check Facebook any time, day or night! You never have to feel like you’re missing out! That’s all good, right?

Maybe not! According to a recent study, researchers found that when people agreed to block the internet from their smartphones for just two weeks, 91% felt better after the break. “What we found was that people had better mental health, better subjective well-being and better sustained attention,” says Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

The researchers measured three different outcomes of well-being, including mood and attention span. According to an NPR story on this study, “One of the surprising findings is that the decrease in depressive symptoms was on par — or even greater than — reductions documented in studies of people taking antidepressant medications.” The study also found that those taking a break from the internet significantly improved their attention spans as measured by a computer task. In fact, one researcher said, “The effects on attention were about as large as if participants had become 10 years younger.” For a more comprehensive understanding of the health benefits of blocking mobile internet, check out this article.

So, this story has me asking myself, “Should I take a Smartphone Vacation and remove the internet from my phone?”  I’m willing to give it a try but I thought it would be way more interesting and fun, if others would do it with me.  If anyone reading this article is interested in taking a Smartphone Vacation with me during the month of June, click here to register. In the meantime, I will do a little research on how to block internet access on androids and Apple phones and share it with you.