DiMartino Shares Tips to Combat Too Much Screen Time

Associate Professor of Psychology and Counseling Melissa DiMartino, Ph.D., is featured in a CNN article about smartphones’ addictive effects and how to combat too much screen time.

DiMartino, a psychology researcher who has conducted research on the mental health impacts of smartphones in the college classroom, suggests keeping your phone in a different room as one way to keep your eyes off its screen. She notes that social media plays a role in why so many people find it difficult to put their devices down, adding that feelings of depression and anxiety often accompany too much use of social media apps.

“When you receive a text or a like, you’ll feel good for a moment because it temporarily fulfills an urge for connection, but it’s not substantiated in the same way as hanging out in person,” she says.