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Hey everyone and welcome back to
another episode of the 

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Understandable English Podcast. 
My name is Oliver and today we 

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will be talking about digital 
addiction. 

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So what digital addiction is, 
and maybe some of the impacts of

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it and how we can overcome it, 
so how we can stop being 

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addicted to our phones, our 
computers, etc. 

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So the reason I made this topic 
or picked this topic is that 

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recently, probably about two or 
three months ago, I took the 

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decision to delete Instagram 
from my phone. 

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Like a lot of you, I'm sure I 
use social media too much. 

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I found myself when I had a 
quiet moment or a gap in my day 

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browsing Instagram reels or 
posts and just watching a load 

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of random videos or useless 
posts and it really wasn't 

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helping me at all in my life. 
I didn't feel like it was giving

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me any value. 
So I took the decision to delete

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Instagram for about two months 
and I recently re downloaded it.

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So today I'm going to talk a 
little bit about that. 

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So my experiences as well with, 
with and without social media. 

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So to start with, what is 
digital addiction? 

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So an addiction is when we feel 
we have lost control of 

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something. 
So for example, smoking, smoking

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cigarettes is an addiction you 
feel you have to. 

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It is a physical addiction. 
So the nicotine in the 

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cigarettes produces a reaction 
in our body which makes us want 

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to smoke more. 
So that is an addiction, but 

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there's also mental addiction. 
So for example, even with 

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cigarettes, you feel at certain 
times, like when you go outside 

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or you get in the car like you 
want a cigarette. 

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This is mental addiction from 
habits. 

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Another good example of mental 
addiction is gambling. 

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So spending money on gambling, 
this is not a physical 

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addiction, it is in our brain, 
in our mind. 

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Likewise, when we deal with 
these addictive technologies, so

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digital technologies, they are 
also designed to be addictive. 

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So when we use Instagram, it has
an algorithm which gives us 

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posts or videos that we are 
likely to enjoy watching and as 

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a result they want us to spend 
as much time as possible on 

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Instagram or Facebook or any 
other social media. 

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And there is a problem with this
because they are using our time 

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as their main income. 
The more time they take from us,

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the more money they make from 
advertising. 

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And there isn't anything exactly
bad about this. 

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But for us, we can find 
ourselves losing time for 

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nothing of value, so we don't 
learn or gain anything. 

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And it's when we lose that 
control, so when we start 

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opening our phones and using 
these apps without thinking 

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about it, that I think it 
becomes quite scary. 

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There are many studies online 
about the negative effects of 

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excessive screen time. 
So excessive means too much. 

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So more than we need and 
excessive screen time and 

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digital addiction have been 
connected or linked to various 

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mental health problems. 
So for example anxiety or 

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depression, loneliness and even 
low self esteem. 

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So when we feel bad about 
ourselves, and I think a lot of 

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this comes from when we spend 
lots of time on social media, we

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don't do the things that we 
really want to do. 

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So that language learning, for 
example, or a chore or home task

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which needs done instead, we 
lose time to these things and 

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then maybe we feel bad about 
that. 

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And it also could reduce the 
amount of socializing that we do

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in real life. 
So when we do it online, it's 

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not the same as meeting someone 
or meeting a friend in person. 

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So that brings me to the point 
about stopping these feelings of

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addiction with Instagram or any 
other social media. 

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So when I deleted Instagram, the
first thing I noticed was that 

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for about two weeks after I 
deleted it, I found myself 

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opening my phone at random times
in the day to check Instagram or

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to start watching videos and it 
wasn't there. 

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So it made me realize after I 
deleted it, how much I actually 

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used it and how much I wanted to
open the app. 

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And this was quite scary to me, 
how much my body was on 

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autopilot. 
So automatically going to do 

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these things, I allowed myself 
to once per week, on the weekend

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download the app to check if I 
had any messages or I missed any

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important messages from people. 
And what I found was when I 

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downloaded it, I hadn't really 
missed anything important. 

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So all those stories or posts 
that people post, I realized I 

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can live without them. 
I don't need to actually see 

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what other people are doing all 
the time, and I definitely don't

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need to watch a million memes 
every day. 

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After a while, I find myself 
doing other things instead. 

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For example, working on this 
podcast or reading a book. 

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And I actually read way more 
books in those two months than I

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had done for the last year or 
the last six months on average, 

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which was crazy. 
But you might be wondering, why 

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did I redownload Instagram? 
In the end, after about two 

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months, I decided to redownload 
Instagram, but simply to control

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how much I used it. 
Deleting it for two months 

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allowed me to realize how much I
didn't need it, and also how 

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much I used it before. 
When I redownloaded it, I found 

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that my habits had changed. 
I didn't want to open it as much

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as I used to, and although I 
still occasionally open it to 

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watch some videos or relax, I 
don't use it anywhere near as 

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much as I did in the past. 
So do you use Instagram or 

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Twitter X or any other social 
media too much? 

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Let me know in the comments or 
if it's on Spotify in the 

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question. 
And I would encourage you, if 

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you do use it too much, to try 
deleting it for a period of time

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at least so you can see how much
your body wants to open it and 

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how much you might actually be 
addicted to it, which could 

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surprise you. 
And I think it's a beneficial 

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activity. 
Think of all the things you 

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would rather do instead and do 
them instead of using social 

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media. 
Of course, social media can be 

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incredibly useful so for keeping
in touch with long distance 

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friends and family for learning,
For example, listening to this 

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podcast or other lingu English 
learning material. 

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But set boundaries, so limit 
with yourself. 

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Don't spend too much time 
wasting time, and always 

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recognize when it isn't actually
fun or useful anymore. 

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So that ends today's episode. 
I hope it was useful for you and

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that you enjoyed listening. 
Thank you so much for listening 

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and I hope you have an amazing 
day.