week without | Radio NPO 1

Many people thought he was crazy beforehand. A week without WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and the application of your bank? Where do you start! It didn’t work either. On the first day of his experiment, Uhlenbroek arrived very late for his appointment with cognitive psychologist Stefan van der Stegel. No google maps in his pocket, and the old navigation box sends him a beam in the wrong direction.

Dangerous waiting moments

Fortunately, Van der Stigchel is patient, and explains what to watch out for in the coming days: “Those mindless moments, when you have nothing to do, will automatically reach your pocket. It will become less and less, and at some point you will no longer think In the matter anymore. It’s going to be hard when you’re not actively working on a task. Waiting for the bus, at the cash register, those kinds of waiting moments, and then people grabbing their cell phones.”

The problem is that at times like this you are alone with your thoughts, and we humans in general don’t like that that much. The so-called: Scientific research has shown that people prefer to shock themselves, says Van der Stigchel, rather than spend time alone in their own company without distraction. Pain is better than being alone with your thoughts. No wonder people fill every empty moment in their lives with their smartphones.

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