Name: How to Talk About Phone Addiction in English | English Conversation Practice | English Podcast
Uploaded: 2026-02-25T07:37:26.000Z
Duration: 19 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to English Unlocked, where we learn real English through real conversations.

Hello to all of our wonderful listeners, wherever you are in the world right now.

What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

I wish I could say something healthy like stretching or drinking water, but

honestly, I check my phone before I even open my eyes properly.

I reach for my phone before I even get out of bed.

And that's kind of scary when you think about.

So today we're going to talk about something that I think every single one of our listeners can relate.

This is going to be a good one, because I think most people know they spend too much time on their phones, but

they don't really know how to talk about it in English.

And we have some really useful words and expressions for you today.

If you're enjoying our podcast, please subscribe and hit that like button and leave us a comment.

We'd love to know, how much screen time did you have yesterday?

So, Sam, let's start with your phone habits.

How much time do you actually spend on your phone every day?

And the worst part is that most of it is completely mindless.

Mindless means doing something without really thinking about it.

Like when you pick up your phone and start scrolling through videos, and

20 minutes later, you think, what did I just watch?

You can't even remember that happens to me all the time.

I was just mindlessly scrolling through social media for an hour.

And the thing is, you don't even enjoy it.

It's not like reading a good book or watching a great movie.

I never think, wow, I'm so glad I spent two hours scrolling.

But when I read a book or go for a walk, I always feel better afterwards.

My colleague told me she tracked her mood for a week on the days she spent Less time on her phone.

And I think one of the biggest problems is what happens at night.

I get into bed, I'm tired, and I think, let me just check one quick thing.

One quick thing, and then one thing becomes two things, two things become ten things, and

suddenly it's one in the morning, and I'm watching a video about how pencils are made.

I started by checking a message, and then the algorithm just pulled me in.

When something pulls you in, it attracts you and makes it hard to stop.

Netflix has definitely pulled me in more than once.

But with phones, I think the problem is even worse because the content never ends.

social media, there's always one more video, one more post, one more notification.

And that connects to something I read about recently.

An urge is a strong feeling inside you that pushes you to do something even when you know you shouldn't.

Like, I had the urge to check my phone during the meeting, but I resisted.

I feel the urge to check my phone constantly, even when I know there's nothing new to see.

And here's something weird that happens to me sometimes.

I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, but when I check, nothing.

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How to Talk About Phone Addiction in English | English Conversation Practice | English Podcast

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approach

panic

immediately