What happens to a society in which a large part of his life only seems to lead on the smartphone? How do people who are constantly looking at their mobile phones tick, although obviously nothing is wrong, and who nevertheless, almost obsessively, constantly scroll up and down their contact lists? How could you actually make people turn off their cell phones occasionally, set them aside, just ignore them?
Who posts nothing is nonexistent - who does not respond fast enough to a WhatsApp message that gets accusations from its communication partners. Most will know this.

We live in times of attention economics: be constantly attentive and at the same time attract attention from others - and usually to the bedroom. Two-thirds of Generation Y are now also in bed. A consequence: communication pressure increases and we develop a true attention syndrome. So we succumb more and more to cyberautomatism.

This creates new behavioral phenomena, such as the phantom gaze (habit to check): We reach for our smartphone, because we believe that a Whatsapp message or a Facebook nudger have been received. In fact, nothing happened - it was just a digital illusion.

Also, some will know the feeling of nomophobia - the fear of being no-mobile, so to miss something online - such as when the battery is almost empty and you have no charger at hand.

One of the great challenges of the attention economy is that one does not, as in the past, act only on a level of perception or consciousness, namely the environment that surrounds a real, physical one. Due to the diversity of cyberspace, the countless apps on the mobile digital tools, we are increasingly moving in many actionable action spaces - and almost at the same time.

In doing so, we are literally conditioned to a constant interruption: Every 20-year-old, on average, watches his digital companion 135 times a day. If you take a 16-hour day, that's about every 7 minutes.

This can increasingly prevent us psychologically from finding structures. The result: We have to mentally enter the previous action again and again. This reduces the ability to concentrate, the susceptibility to errors increases or conversation content must be repeated. The speed and quality of the activities may also suffer, the comprehension may decrease and the memory may deteriorate overall.

The paradox, however, is that we feel exactly the opposite. We believe that we can concentrate much better with our smartphone than without a device. We overestimate our media multitasking capabilities significantly (overconfidence bias).

The constant interruptions also lead us to develop new perception strategies. The information intake suffers, it becomes more superficial: We get accustomed to psycho-psycho-logical tastes of short tweets. For example, only about 10 to 15 percent of documents viewed online are actually read.

More and more distraction effects become effective. Emotions, known contents or own opinions steer the acceptance of information (confirmation error). At the same time, the ability to criticize can be sensitive - let's think of Fake News. We easily get into the digital environment of the "filter bubble" of like-minded people.

For example, a study by Stanford University shows that 80 percent of under-18s in the US can no longer distinguish between fake news, real news, advertising, deliberately spreadsheets, commercial websites, and news from influencers and Twitterers.

Also, our lives are increasingly determined by images - through Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram & Co. We are getting more and more accustomed to seeing and experiencing our own lives through the lens of technology, our smartphones: Concerts are on the screen tracked while recording them to post that later. The same thing happens when you're on a sightseeing tour in foreign cities.

However, this creates a higher emotional distance to what has just been experienced. On the other hand, experiencing our own "eye" leaves a stronger impression and also allows us to better store emotions - the screen often slides like a digital wall between us and what we see.

At the same time, flood of images and attention economy increasingly influence our emotional ego level and our social interaction. Which of us does not succumb to the trend to self-expression, the "selfie-mania" at some point. This has different psychological aspects. For example, physical self-presentation, self-seeing in certain poses and situations increases the emotional attachment to one's own self. In addition, control over one's self-image, self-determination, gives a sense of security and stability. Especially if the reactions are positive.

However, this can also lead to self-obsession through continuous validation and comparison with others (validation spiral) or to emotional dependencies after external reactions (likes, followers) and to digital stress or addictive behavior. Withdrawal symptoms can occur if reactions do not occur. The consequences can also be negative effects on the self-image, when reactions are suddenly criticizing, rejecting or degrading.

At the same time, we can quickly get caught in the vicious circle of the Be-happy trap. Mostly we see beautiful pictures or stories of successful happy people. However, this may obscure our view of our own reality - we ourselves feel significantly more unhappy, more ineffective, quarreling with ourselves, or doubting our abilities. We fall into a digital network trap.

What to do to avoid succumbing to this cyberautism and become competent cybernauts?

Each of us should put on his digital glasses and develop a new digital awareness. We have to recognize ourselves and feel how manipulatable we are, that we are unconsciously controlled by others, how digital thinking and decision-making is done today and much more.

So do not put the mind in front of the screen, but become more critical, self-inquiry and other or content that meet one question more (the search for fake and truth) and reflect more strongly: What is good for me and what can me or hurt my relationships, job etc.

Introducing your own stop signs is an important step: do not just scan everything or immediately press the Next button. Outsmart your own convenience and also put down the vain mentality (what costs nothing online, is usually suspicious) - even if this is more time-consuming and expensive.

Part of this is to practice more self-control: to put in targeted off-time times and to divide the online time well. The following tips can help:

1. Leave your smartphone out of sight - but the presence distracts you

2. Digital Behavioral Tricks: Building Smartphone Towers in the Family and with Friends - The first person to reach for the device pays the next round or does the dishes

3. Knowledge about your own behavior / online logbook: Apps such as Moment, Offtime or Checky help to observe your own usage. You will be surprised, because we underestimate the usage

4. Detox experiments: alternate days of use and non-use. Keep track of how you feel when you're not allowed to use the smartphone (stress, discomfort, impatience) and what you do instead. Discuss this with others in the family and / or with friends

5. Purposefully restrict the use of Instagram and Co. app usage. Apps turn off automatically or install apps like Forest (which reward us for not reaching for your smartphone)

6. Set screen of the smartphone to grayscale - color and colorful images distract significantly more

7. Disoriented without a smartphone? Targeted emancipate from the smartphone. Not just using Google Maps, but activating your own sense of direction (also applies to GPS in the car), learning to read a map again or asking for directions in the area

8. Targeted off-time times: learning to walk out of the house for a few hours without a smartphone, shopping, visiting a restaurant ...

And finally you will realize that nothing bad happens if you are not always ON!

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