Replace “phone” with “food” — and see what happens.
This is pretty disturbing.
We’ve become a civilization that uses smartphones in indiscriminate, unlimited ways.
We use our phones first thing in the morning, often the first thing we do while still in bed. We use our phones right before we go to sleep, again while in bed. And when we do go to sleep, we put our phones by our bedside, so we can access it without getting up when we awake.
When we’re bored, we use our phones. When you’re waiting for something, we use our phones. When we exercise, we use our phones. When we’re working or in a meeting, we have our phone on the desk. So many people were using their phones while driving, they had to outlaw it.
Practically the only time we don’t use our phones is when we’re in the shower, although I’m sure many people use their phone while taking a bath.
Now, replace the word “phone” with “food,” and see how it sounds:
We’ve become a civilization that eats food in indiscriminate, unlimited ways.
We eat food first thing in the morning, often the first thing we do while still in bed. We eat food right before we go to sleep, again while in bed. And when we do go to sleep, we put food by our bedside, so we can access it without getting up when we awake.
When we’re bored, we eat. When you’re waiting for something, we eat. When we exercise, we eat. When we’re working or in a meeting, we have food on the desk. So many people were eating while driving, they had to outlaw it.
Practically the only time we don’t eat is when we’re in the shower, although I’m sure many people eat while taking a bath.
Talk about food for thought!
If you’re like me, you probably pay general attention to calories, sugar, fat, et cetera. You don’t eat ice cream, cakes and cookies for every meal. Your snacks don’t always consist of chocolate, chips and donuts. You might limit your consumption of red meat, or you might not eat meat at all.
Why, then, do we not pay attention to the amount of time we use our phones, and the types of things we do on them. And, more importantly, why do we not set and adhere to limits for our phones?
‘Smartphones are like power tools.’
I recently heard someone say:
“Smartphones are like power tools. They can be extremely helpful, or extremely dangerous.”
To move as far away from the “dangerous” side of the spectrum, I downloaded Moment (one of the apps I recommend) to help me monitor and limit my phone use. (If you don’t have an iPhone, try Your Hour for Android.)
The first thing Moment does is tell you how much you use your phone, and I (very disturbingly) found out I was using my phone for nearly three hours per day. Three hours!!! Here are a few things you can do in three hours:
- Take a roundtrip flight between London and Paris
- Watch two movies
- Count to 10,800
With this in mind, I put together a list of seven ways we can break our addiction to smartphones, or prevent it from happening in the first place.
There’s more where that came from at Hack My Time.
