People are spending a stunning 68 full days a year on their mobile devices. If you're feeling burned out, it's near-guaranteed the problem is your phone.
I have been seeing this for years among university students. Yesterday, I had a student who was so focused on his mobile device that he could not keep up with the class in a model-building exercise. We collaborated, and I went around the room to the student and noticed he was not in the game. We both knew why; I could see he felt ashamed, and I told him that if stayed focused in class, he would save a lot of time in the afternoon when he struggled on the homework because he was working solo. We all get the problem. It is time for everybody to make better choices.
Frightening to think about it in terms of days. Good call no pun intended.
My daughter’s school has signs at drop off that say no texting and put down your phone cause it’s such a huge problem that it’s a county wide campaign at the public schools and all the high school kids are like zombies staring at their phones as they walk.
But I’m guilty of all the behavior mentioned. It’s hard.
Trying to tell people! See most of my computing is at my workstation (I am workaholic there) but at least for the most part I leave it at the desk. That's really all you need to do IMHO
When I'm done with the workday my phone stays in my home office until I grab it on the way out the door somewhere. It stays in the home office overnight too, far away from where I'm sleeping. My wife complains that we might miss an emergency 3 AM phone call, but I point out that a 3 AM phone call is only going to be bad news we can't do anything about, and thus will still be there at 7 AM.
Absolutely terrifying when you put it in terms of days like that. But it's so true! I've noticed that I struggle to sit alone with my thoughts for long anymore; if I'm left to my own devices for even a few seconds, out comes the phone.
So I've tried to stop the mindless scrolling by counting to 20; if I still want or need to check my phone after 20 seconds have passed, then I go right ahead, but usually the pause breaks me of the reflexive mindless scroll. But to stop it, I have to notice that I'm doing it, first.
I did a digital detox recently for 1 month where I stopped using all social apps and content aggregators (twitter, reddit, youtube) on both Mobile and Desktop. The idea was to prevent unintentional content consumption (useful or not). While I stopped using those apps - I was still using Mobile to read (Substack, Kindle etc.)
I now think that I should have created my detox routine around mobile phone use rather than the Apps themselves. The "Always on Access from Mobile" is a bigger culprit than the apps themselves
I have been seeing this for years among university students. Yesterday, I had a student who was so focused on his mobile device that he could not keep up with the class in a model-building exercise. We collaborated, and I went around the room to the student and noticed he was not in the game. We both knew why; I could see he felt ashamed, and I told him that if stayed focused in class, he would save a lot of time in the afternoon when he struggled on the homework because he was working solo. We all get the problem. It is time for everybody to make better choices.
Thanks for nurturing the kids here, it's important work
Frightening to think about it in terms of days. Good call no pun intended.
My daughter’s school has signs at drop off that say no texting and put down your phone cause it’s such a huge problem that it’s a county wide campaign at the public schools and all the high school kids are like zombies staring at their phones as they walk.
But I’m guilty of all the behavior mentioned. It’s hard.
This is sorely needed. Less dot com. More dot calm.
Serenity.
Now.
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-need-for-serenity
Trying to tell people! See most of my computing is at my workstation (I am workaholic there) but at least for the most part I leave it at the desk. That's really all you need to do IMHO
When I'm done with the workday my phone stays in my home office until I grab it on the way out the door somewhere. It stays in the home office overnight too, far away from where I'm sleeping. My wife complains that we might miss an emergency 3 AM phone call, but I point out that a 3 AM phone call is only going to be bad news we can't do anything about, and thus will still be there at 7 AM.
So smart
Absolutely terrifying when you put it in terms of days like that. But it's so true! I've noticed that I struggle to sit alone with my thoughts for long anymore; if I'm left to my own devices for even a few seconds, out comes the phone.
So I've tried to stop the mindless scrolling by counting to 20; if I still want or need to check my phone after 20 seconds have passed, then I go right ahead, but usually the pause breaks me of the reflexive mindless scroll. But to stop it, I have to notice that I'm doing it, first.
I did a digital detox recently for 1 month where I stopped using all social apps and content aggregators (twitter, reddit, youtube) on both Mobile and Desktop. The idea was to prevent unintentional content consumption (useful or not). While I stopped using those apps - I was still using Mobile to read (Substack, Kindle etc.)
I now think that I should have created my detox routine around mobile phone use rather than the Apps themselves. The "Always on Access from Mobile" is a bigger culprit than the apps themselves
I'm thinking of buying board games now :)
68 days?! Holy fuck. And that's before we strap the devices to our faces...