Is technology making you unhappy?

Technology is causing so much distraction in our daily lives that it’s making us unhappy.

A new study commissioned by Centre Parcs, measuring the distraction level of more than 450 volunteers when engaging in typical daily life activities such as shopping, socialising or spending time in the park, revealed that, on average, we spend 28% of our day distracted.

Mobile phones were the biggest distraction, accounting for 17% of that time – though for 15% of people, mobile phones account for a whopping 50% of their daily distractions.

The level of distraction was then correlated against people’s reports of their level of happiness at the time of testing. Those distracted by mobile phones are more likely to say they're also unhappy.

The Good Housekeeping Institute has some top tips to ensure you don’t get distracted by your gadgets – and, hopefully, improve your happiness levels:

• Identify the key times during the day when you need not to be distracted – whether it’s when you head to the park with the kids or are enjoying an evening in on the sofa with your partner.
• At these times, leave your smartphone at home or in another room in a drawer, and agree that you won’t retrieve it until the allotted time has passed. Turn the phone to silent and ensure the vibrate function is off so you can’t hear calls or texts.
• If you need your handset with you in case of an emergency, switch it to Do Not Disturb Mode. Apple iPhones and some Google Android devices offer this function – just select Settings, then Do Not Disturb and turn it on. You can choose to allow calls from Favourite or Priority contacts should you worry about not being able to be contactable.