by Steph Holton
My day starts and ends with my cellphone. In the morning it acts as an alarm, dutifully blaring out “Urgent” by Foreigner, and in the evening, much as I hate to admit it, scrolling through Pinterest is the lullaby that puts me to sleep. Now, I know these two smartphone-enabled acts are not uncommon, and neither are they excessive uses of the technology. But what about the hours of use in between?
I’ve found that, increasingly often, people are less hesitant to admit how completely dependent they are on their phones. This is the information age, after all, and what is a Google search here and a minute to check Facebook there really hurting? Well, our individual and collective productivity. You know what I mean: You block out two hours for homework, sit down at your desk, then fast forward a hundred and twenty minutes – you’ve watched a half dozen YouTube videos and done maybe half an hour of actual work. Even as I type this, I’m desperately attempting to abstain from going to the open browser window to look up every little whim that pops into my head.
Is this a problem for me? Yes, absolutely.
Is it becoming a societal problem? I don’t know – what do you think?
What I do know is that if I could quantify the amount of extra work I’d be getting done every day without my phone as a productivity-roadblock, I think I’d be at least a tad horrified. So I’m making a New Year’s resolution to power-down more often.