[HN Gopher] The average American spent 2.5 months on their phone...
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The average American spent 2.5 months on their phone in 2024
Author : elorant
Score : 149 points
Date : 2024-12-29 12:16 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcmag.com)
| Dalewyn wrote:
| I would just like to note that "on the phone" here seemingly
| doesn't include the actual act of _being on the phone_ (read:
| making /taking phone calls).
| drchickensalad wrote:
| In fact if it's not a voice call it should probably be
| excluded, lol. I feel like semantically right now being on your
| phone refers to looking at the screen actively, even though
| that's very much not the origin of the phrase. Yet, nowadays
| the meaning of the phrase probably excluded when you're holding
| it to the side of your head, as you're not looking at a screen
| at all.
| onion2k wrote:
| Does anyone still do that?
| rr808 wrote:
| Yeah my screen time includes maps navigation.
| jjgreen wrote:
| I recall, pre-iPhone, sitting in a pub waiting for a friend to
| arrive, staring into the middle-distance. I noticed a young man
| sitting at the bar with a phone. He'd pick it up, check for
| messages, put it down, take a sip of beer then his leg would
| start to judder (he was on a bar stool), then repeat the whole
| thing. A cadence of around 45s. "What a weirdo" I thought to
| myself. Turns out I was the weirdo, heh.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yep. When I worked at Apple and took the (Apple) bus to work, I
| would arrive early at the bus stop and wait with the other
| employees. Lined up, everyone had their phones out, staring
| down. Me, I was looking at the old out-of-comnmision payphone,
| at the cars going by, at the copies of "Avisador" in the busted
| newspaper stand.
|
| Boredom is a good thing for the brain.
|
| And, honestly, I must be of the older generation because I find
| nothing very interesting on my phone. It takes pictures and
| gives me directions. I'm a lap-topper.
| heartbreak wrote:
| > I find nothing very interesting on my phone.
|
| It contains the entire Internet? If you see me on my phone at
| a bus stop, I'm probably reading a book.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| The internet is not really organised in a way for you to do
| anything useful if you are bored. There's no "learn about
| the world" course you take when you have nothing else to
| do.
|
| In fact, all the stuff we've designed to capture attention
| is almost the exact opposite of a good use of the internet.
|
| I find it very difficult to queue up good content to read
| or listen to on a daily basis. And I try. Imagine all the
| people without the time to discover enough good content.
| hk__2 wrote:
| > There's no "learn about the world" course you take when
| you have nothing else to do.
|
| Good newspapers usually allow you to do that.
| ibejoeb wrote:
| > There's no "learn about the world" course you take
|
| There's practically an undoable number of hours of free
| courses on Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, and others.
| Thousands of hours of interesting material on youtube.
| kergonath wrote:
| I used to think so, but with more experience a lot of
| dark patterns and perverse incentives are becoming
| obvious. These people are not there to explain something
| interesting in a useful way, they are there to get your
| eyeballs to extract money from advertising or a Patreon.
| They are not teaching you, they are making you think they
| teach you to make you feel satisfied and give them money.
| Of course some of them are actually good, but a lot are
| not really.
| PittleyDunkin wrote:
| There's also Wikipedia. It takes a pretty long time to
| exhaust that, although I've tried my hardest.
| exe34 wrote:
| I have a massive folder of ebooks, pdfs, YouTube videos,
| etc that I've downloaded on my phone. I also have a list
| in Google keep of about twenty of these things in order
| of preference, so I always have something to
| read/watch/listen to based on my level of energy.
| sgt wrote:
| HN enters the chat...
| kergonath wrote:
| > The internet is not really organised in a way for you
| to do anything useful if you are bored. There's no "learn
| about the world" course you take when you have nothing
| else to do.
|
| I have a list of links to read for when I have time to do
| so. But yeah, if I don't have anything to do, I prefer
| just doing nothing than seeking engagement. Social media
| are a mind killer.
|
| > I find it very difficult to queue up good content to
| read or listen to on a daily basis.
|
| When I come across something that looks interesting, I
| add it to the list and stuff accumulates until I go
| through each link and read the page, usually during my 30
| minutes commute. (or not, sometimes it is not as
| interesting as I thought it would be). For me it works
| quite well.
| seydar wrote:
| Sounds like you have a good list -- can you share some of
| it?
| cableshaft wrote:
| I would agree that most people don't use the internet for
| that when they're bored (including me more often than I'd
| like to admit), and the big tech websites are all about
| capturing attention and not providing good uses of the
| internet, for the most part, but that doesn't mean it's
| not available for people if they want it.
|
| Last night I was working through some shader tutorials,
| for instance, albeit on my laptop (I prefer laptop to
| phone when possible).
|
| I also playtest one of my games (current one has a mobile
| version), or brainstorm and take notes for my game
| designs, or read up on something I want to do with one of
| my games, or go through my github issues list and
| sometimes even look at my code repos while I'm killing
| time while out and about (I mostly don't use my phone
| when I'm not out, I'll just use my laptop).
|
| I try to remember I have a Kindle app with lots of
| informative books to read but I do forget about a little
| too often.
|
| When I was younger, I would program text-based games all
| the time on my TI graphing calculator. I would even bring
| that instead of my Game Boy to my grandparents sometimes,
| because I just wanted to code more of my games.
|
| I do think that capability is lacking on phones. It's
| technically possible, but the environment (at least on
| iPhone) is so sandboxed it's difficult to do effectively,
| or at least it was the last time I tried. Anything you're
| making on the device directly does not have access to the
| same capabilities as what you make from a laptop or
| desktop, and that's a shame.
| simonsarris wrote:
| Sure there is. I used to read Wikipedia's Article of the
| Day every day at lunch. I only stopped because I found
| even more interesting (to me) things to read about.
| itishappy wrote:
| > The internet is not really organised in a way for you
| to do anything useful if you are bored. There's no "learn
| about the world" course you take when you have nothing
| else to do.
|
| I'd argue you're holding it wrong. The repository of all
| human knowledge absolutely does contain numerous "learn
| about the world" courses in all shapes and forms. HN,
| arXiv, Wikipedia, parts of YouTube, and dedicated
| learning platforms abound and each probably has enough
| content for a lifetime of learning. I agree it's not
| designed to make this easy, but it's also not
| particularly hard. Hit "random article" a few times on
| Wikipedia and you're off to the races.
| nunez wrote:
| My brother/sister in Christ, its time for you to embrace
| TikTok. You'll never be bored again! /s
| kqr wrote:
| I'm the same. I spend somewhere between 1 and 5 hours on
| the phone daily, but 80 % of that is writing articles and
| reading books I don't have on my Kindle.
| jhrmnn wrote:
| Indeed. I spent surely a few thousand hours in books as a
| teenager. Now I spend majority of time on my phone
| reading short- and long-form non-fiction. "Time on phone"
| is irrelevant without specifying the activity. Perhaps
| not if it automatically implies "time on social
| networks".
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| i'm sure the vast majority of americans spent 2.5 months on
| their phones reading books, of course, we have nothing to
| worry about
| swores wrote:
| They very obviously weren't claiming that, they were
| responding to a specific comment about there being
| nothing interesting on smartphones. Try to interpret what
| people say with good faith.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| the subtext of their comment, the unspoken implication,
| the between the lines meaning was that it's fine people
| are on their phone all the time, because some of them are
| reading books
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| I didn't read it like that at all.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| obviously I did
|
| what do we do now, ask other users for their input? make
| a poll?
|
| i don't know why HN has this habit of using anecdotes as
| absolute counter-arguments, makes for uninteresting
| discussion in my opinion
|
| and the subtext is always the same "A did/didn't happen
| to me, so then it follows A does/doesn't happen to
| anyone"
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| Actually, you phrased your previous post as though it
| were a fact, not an opinion, so it's more like "A didn't
| happen for me, so A does not happen for _everyone_. "
|
| I was challenging your assertion, not making a counter-
| assertion.
| exe34 wrote:
| I think the implication was that it didn't have to be on
| tiktok. it's a choice that people make. the phone doesn't
| force them. rejecting the phone entirely isn't some form
| of virtue or moral purity.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| Tending to one's mental health and advancement is a
| virtue, falling into abject hedonism is a moral failing
| exe34 wrote:
| reading a book isn't neither abject hedonism nor a moral
| failing.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| true
|
| spending 2.5 months doomscrolling or browsing tiktok, on
| the other hand....
| exe34 wrote:
| I'll refer you back to my original comment:
|
| > I think the implication was that it didn't have to be
| on tiktok. it's a choice that people make. the phone
| doesn't force them. rejecting the phone entirely isn't
| some form of virtue or moral purity.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| arguing semantics
|
| in this particular context "rejecting the phone" means
| "rejecting tiktok"
|
| no one was concerned about the phone if the vast majority
| of users were reading books on it
| exe34 wrote:
| I get the impression you just didn't read it properly and
| are now digging in your heels.
|
| If "the vast majority of users" could "reject the phone",
| then they could also "reject tiktok".
| swores wrote:
| There's nothing intrinsically wrong with hedonistic
| activities, so long as they don't harm other people and
| so long as you avoid things like addiction. Even
| something like using heroin isn't immoral in and of
| itself (except according to some religions), it's just
| that it's so unlikely you'll be able to use it once
| without going down the path of addiction that most of us
| sensibly treat it as something to never do.
|
| Social media can cause mental health issues, qnd can lead
| to addiction to it, but that doesn't mean that using it
| is a moral failing. And frankly, neither is becoming
| addicted to heroin a moral failing (though most people
| would consider it a personal failing since we would
| dislike being addicted to it), it's a healthcare issue
| not a morality issue. The only moral failing would be
| committing offences against other people because of the
| addiction, eg stealing from somebody to pay for the
| drugs.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| true, addiction is not a moral failing
|
| that doesn't negate what I said at all, not striving to
| keep a healthy body and healthy mind, not working on
| developing yourself, on elevating yourself, not wanting
| to become better, IS a moral failing
|
| and certain hedonistic activities, like the social media
| dopamine dispensers, although they do not hurt other
| people, do hurt the moral imperative of growing yourself
| as a person
| keernan wrote:
| >>not striving to keep a healthy body and healthy mind,
| not working on developing yourself, on elevating
| yourself, not wanting to become better, IS a moral
| failing
|
| Whoa. How is it any of your business how I live my life
| so long as I am not impacting you or society in any way?
| I'm 72 years old and I spend my time the way I want to
| spend my time. I don't exercise any longer. And that will
| almost certainly shorten how much longer I live. How is
| that any of your business?
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| Just because your choices might not affect me, and they
| don't, at all, doesn't mean they're moral, doesn't mean
| they're good.
|
| I would rank self-actualization, personal growth, as the
| second rule behind the golden rule, and there are many
| schools of philosophy where that's the case: aristotelian
| ethics, kantian ethics, existentialism, etc.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Much rather read a book on my laptop. The phone is shitty-
| internet.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| But at a bus stop, your options are phone or standing
| around. The immediate area of the bus stop beats a book
| on your phone?
|
| I understand you may want boredom as a practice, but do
| you genuinely find the bus stop area more interesting?
| 93po wrote:
| I think the point is that mindfulness in your present
| moment, if done intentionally, can be a beneficial
| practice. There is value in not constantly seeking
| dopamine hits and allowing your brain to feel discomfort
| in doing nothing. It's really up to the individual when
| they choose to do this, though. I don't personally enjoy
| doing this in public and when having to do stuff like
| commute or try to get through a work day. But I can
| respect that others do.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| No, the bus stop is quite boring -- and that's fine. My
| best ideas come when I am bored.
| dingnuts wrote:
| you'd rather read a novel on your laptop while standing
| in line at Discount Tire than on your phone?
|
| you walk around with your laptop in your back pocket all
| the time like Eminem or something?
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, no, I don't read while standing in line at Discount
| Tire. I people-watch.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Interesting. Do you actually do that? I agree that phones
| are not as good in general but I can't imagine reading a
| book on a laptop.
| Triphibian wrote:
| I keep a paperback on the passenger seat of my car. If
| waiting is going to happen I bring it with me.
| nunez wrote:
| WAP has risen from the dead in a fury just to enter the
| chat...
| credit_guy wrote:
| We all know that you might also be reading Hacker News.
| heartbreak wrote:
| Ha! I almost said that to OP who stares off into space
| while at the bus stop, but hey.
| saagarjha wrote:
| Look if I have the option of quietly staring at a suburban
| nightmare or talking to my friends I know what I am going to
| pick.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Yeah 90% of the time when you're sitting around waiting
| you're not really anywhere interesting.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| This is the trap they have you in. Of course there is
| always something "more interesting" on the internet. The
| interesting creates the adrenaline rush, the adrenaline
| rush gets you addicted by changing adrenaline receptor
| density which leads you looking for something even more
| exciting.
|
| Even when you are just looking around IRL, one view will
| be more interesting than the other, right? But now that
| got you all doped up on "super interesting" through this
| teleportation device to all things interesting,
| everything around you look extremely boring in
| comparison.
|
| As your adrenaline receptors come back to life you will
| find that everything around you is really actually quite
| interesting.
| patcon wrote:
| This feels really wise. Thanks
| mieko wrote:
| I don't know where you're from, but in the US, the
| average spot I'd be killing time in is surrounded by
| acres of parking lots and a busy stroad or two. A
| Tamagotchi or 1980s pocket calculator is more engaging.
|
| Nothing to do with adrenaline, addiction, doom-scrolling,
| dopamine or chemical receptors. Millions of people are
| surrounded by a wasteland of asphalt and machines going
| 60mph with nothing interesting within sight.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| I have sold photographs of some of the most boring things
| in the world. For exampke, a playing card in a gutter on
| the street.
|
| I was also homeless for five years and had to spend times
| in some of the worst places in the US.
|
| You do not see it because you are desensitized.
| criddell wrote:
| Embrace boredom.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| That's true. But that only brings me back to my point
| about boredom being a good thing. Maybe you disagree
| though. That's fair.
| ksymph wrote:
| I doubt you spend every second of your non-work time
| staring into space though. I like to read, for example;
| just because I do it on my phone in public sometimes
| doesn't mean I'm not finding other times for quiet
| contemplation.
| criddell wrote:
| > I doubt you spend every second of your non-work time
| staring into space though.
|
| Do you really think that's what was being suggested? I
| assumed they were merely suggesting to not reflexively
| reach for your phone any time you have a moment of
| downtime.
| ksymph wrote:
| The example used doesn't seem like a good indication of
| reflexively reaching for a phone, as doing things while
| waiting at a bus stop is pretty reasonable and has been
| around long before smartphones.
|
| You're right though, that's likely what was meant, which
| I agree with. The hyperbole was unnecessary.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| Ignoring the very real American nightmare is why we are
| still in the very real American nightmare.
|
| Maybe that is the purpose of these phones?
| 93po wrote:
| I don't think staring at a bus stop is a meaningful step
| towards changing the American nightmare. We have a lot of
| problems due to poor leadership in this country and in
| the world, and people understandably struggle to take
| meaningful action to replace that leadership (i.e. vote
| in their best interest, and vote based on meaningful
| things that most people don't consider at all when
| voting). Instead we bicker about DEI and what genitals
| someone has under their clothes when they use certain
| restrooms instead of, you know, a voting and election
| process that is more representative and accountable.
| Until there is greater class consciousness and people
| have more emotional bandwidth to consider things outside
| what is immediately placed in front of them with
| instagram/tiktok/corporate news/advertising, I don't
| think it's going to change much. This is a weird tangent.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| > I don't think staring at a bus stop is a meaningful
| step towards changing the American nightmare.
|
| That is not even close to what I was speaking to. It is
| just part of the process of waking up and becoming
| unattached and less dependent and more aware of your
| surroundings and feeling the suffering so you create the
| will to change things.
|
| > Instead we bicker about DEI and what genitals someone
| has under their clothes when they use certain restrooms
| instead of, you know, a voting and election process that
| is more representative and accountable.
|
| All of this was brought to you by the internet by the
| people you complain about below.
|
| > Until there is greater class consciousness and people
| have more emotional bandwidth to consider things outside
| what is immediately placed in front of them with
| instagram/tiktok/corporate news/advertising, I don't
| think it's going to change much.
|
| Class consciousness starts off line, by helping the poor
| in your local area. Take a look at what the Black
| Panthers did and you will get an idea. If people are
| staring at TikTok it is highly unlikely that are running
| into this information.
|
| https://rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/how-the-black-
| panthers-p...
|
| Though commonly associated with the sensational, the
| Black Panthers conceived of and implemented a wide array
| of meaningful social programs. The Panthers started free
| breakfast for school children, with party members cooking
| every morning for the poor and undernourished kids in
| their communities. They established the Oakland Community
| School, which offered adult education and childcare, as
| well as free medical clinics staffed by well-regarded
| academic physicians who volunteered a portion of their
| time. Mary Bassett, former commissioner of health of the
| city of New York, writes that the Panthers initiated
| medical research into sickle cell anemia, which was
| largely ignored prior to their work. They provided
| plumbing, home maintenance, and even pest control
| services.
| whamlastxmas wrote:
| > It is just part of the process of waking up and
| becoming unattached and less dependent and more aware of
| your surroundings and feeling the suffering so you create
| the will to change things.
|
| Unless there is already the seed of making change and
| recognizing what change needs to be made, the idle time
| isn't really going to help. I suffer plenty in life, I
| don't need to artificially increase that as some sort of
| motivation to vote differently or interact with my
| community differently.
|
| > All of this was brought to you by the internet by the
| people you complain about below.
|
| Disagreement on social issues has always existed and
| would also exist even without the internet. I'm not sure
| what your point is with this comment.
|
| I agree local efforts are great and meaningful. But for
| large systemic change we need different voting habits.
| nunez wrote:
| Exact same experience at Google in 2015. I remember being
| super weirded out that seemingly everyone was buried in
| phones and laptops while walking around the campus. Hated it.
| dugmartin wrote:
| Wikipedia's random link is great for learning something new.
| It is described here as I can't copy the real link on my
| phone without it resolving to a new page.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Random
| averageRoyalty wrote:
| > Boredom is a good thing for the brain.
|
| I hear this adage repeated a lot, but is it true? A quick
| kagi finds me lots of news articles quoting neuro-scientists,
| but no actual studies I can see.
|
| If it is, I assume like sleep or vegetables there's a certain
| amount you should have per day and a point of diminishing
| returns.
| kqr wrote:
| The years pre-iPhone I was one of the few high-intensity users
| of WAP. I used it to participate in forums and on IRC from all
| sorts of places.
|
| I guess I sort of saw the social-media-in-your-pocket thing
| coming a long way before it did.
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| >high-intensity users of WAP
|
| A very professional way of saying you were getting a lot of
| play? /j
| grogenaut wrote:
| Pre palm tro I'd have a book or laptop or newspaper with me
| everywhere cause it was either that, doing highlights, or
| reading o magazine at the doctor. Though I learned some great
| recipes from o magazine.
|
| Pre Kindle I'd take around 15 lbs of books with me on trips.
|
| There's a joke in knpins about reading the shampoo bottle on
| the John. I've done that
| seb1204 wrote:
| Yes, Cereal boxes and shampoo bottles, any text would do.
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| No, he was the weirdo. The fact that something is common does
| not make it normal. If you walked around Hong Kong in the 1880s
| you'd think you are a weirdo for not smoking opium all day.
| There will be a similar rude awakening after the current one.
| yayitswei wrote:
| From a statistical definition, it does. But yes, we can do
| better.
| frereubu wrote:
| I would always have a copy of The Economist, New Yorker, NYRB,
| LRB or similar when I was travelling around London, so avoiding
| boredom was a priority for me even then. Much more restful to
| read a physical magazine though, and the only thing to distract
| me from an article was other articles in the magazine or my
| surroundings rather than "maybe that comment on Hacker News has
| a few more upvotes now".
| minzi wrote:
| Is there any hope of turning this trend around or at least
| keeping it where it is? I don't think that the months spent on my
| phone have benefited me or anyone I know.
| Dalewyn wrote:
| Give it 10 or so years and The Thing(tm) will cycle around to
| the next thing.
|
| Previously it was gaming (namely consoles), before that was TV,
| before that was comic books, and so on. Every generation has
| its "Spends Too Much Time on The Thing(tm)" stereotype.
| sojournerc wrote:
| I don't see this trend as generational though. There are just
| as many boomers as zoomers glued to their phones.
| hk__2 wrote:
| > Previously it was gaming (namely consoles), before that was
| TV, before that was comic books, and so on. Every generation
| has its "Spends Too Much Time on The Thing(tm)" stereotype.
|
| I feel like we spend way more time on our phones that what we
| (or they) used to do with consoles, TV, comic books and so
| on.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| ah yes, something vaguely similar happened in the past, this
| is nothing to worry about
|
| people were sick with the flu before, surely the cancer won't
| kill them, they got over the flu, didn't they
| csomar wrote:
| The difference is that you can take your phone with you but
| the same can't be true for the TV or the gaming console.
| That's a big factor.
|
| I suspect more people would have bought Apple Vision if it
| was cheaper/more affordable. I suspect a lot more people
| would have bought it if it was 1/2 weight at $1000 and didn't
| require that dangling battery. The future will be people with
| their phones hooked to their faces.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| To some degree I have made peace with it.
|
| Decades ago I would come home and crash in front of the TV --
| watching dreck.
|
| At least in the evening I think the mind needs to disengage,
| relax. That can be found in watching "Forensic Files" or
| playing online solitaire or scrolling through BlueSky.
|
| Perhaps reading would be a better substitute though.
| rchaud wrote:
| TV is nowhere near as addictive as social media. Take it from
| someone who watched hours of it daily as a teenager and then
| barely even missed it upon going to college. Social media has
| all the niche stuff that wouldn't merit a 30-minute TV
| series. It's unpredictable, funny, local and international in
| ways TV never is.
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| Old guy here who grew up without phones but later felt the
| dependace they were creating in me so worked to stop it.
|
| You have to start with yourself an be an example. It is an
| "addiction of sorts" (maybe a very strong habit?), but think of
| it like telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking.
|
| Like an addiction, you need to get rid of the Pavlovian ringing
| bells to help you through.
|
| Rule one: Turn off all notifications and turn on battery saver
| mode.
|
| Rule two: Get off of all social media. I am including HN with
| this. Delete them, you will be fine. HN is the only place I
| talk online now and only on my laptop, but its days are
| numbered for me.
|
| Rule three: Leave your phone behind. Probably the hardest. I
| started just by leaving it the car when I was shopping, then
| leaving it home when shopping.When I ma at the coffee shop I
| leave it in my bag.
|
| Rule four: Do not use your phone at all when you are home.
| Start by setting time limits and extend them, but no one died
| stopping cold turkey. I only even use my laptop in the morning
| to read news
|
| Rule five: Learn to do something else with your hands. Cook,
| work on your car, clean your house, anything.
|
| Rule six: Be OK with "not knowing" and try to stop searching
| the internet every time a question pops up in your head. This
| was very hard for me because of my clinically diagnosed OCD. I
| found the "checking" my phone was allowing me to do just made
| my OCD worse in the long run.
|
| I am at the point now where I use my phone so little the
| battery lasts five days easy with 20% left.
| speff wrote:
| These are all good points - and ones I've been trying to
| follow for the past few months. Rule five was the most
| important one for me. Anytime I have an urge to doomscroll, I
| make a conscious effort to do something IRL instead. Taking
| up a deep hobby which can take years/decades to actually
| master seems like a better time sink (practicing visual art
| in my case)
|
| The thought that quitting social media is harder than
| quitting smoking also helps cement the idea that it is bad
| for me when I try to dissuade myself from using it
| firesteelrain wrote:
| Ah that googling or asking ChatGPT a question and getting an
| answer is crazy for me. I thought it was just me. Glad I am
| not the only one
| Gooblebrai wrote:
| Don't you fall back into increased laptop use when stopping
| your phone usage? Any advice you have on that front?
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| Yes, dicipline is needed there as well. I do a lot if
| genetic reseach and I look at my laptop as a tool, a
| potentially dangerous tool, like a woodworker using a
| lathe, i stay alert and focused on the task at hand.
|
| My laptop is essentially a desktop as well. I only use it
| on a desk in one room.
|
| I never turn to these devices out of boredum. That is the
| best rule.
|
| Plus, steven black on github has a great host file blocking
| all kibds of websites.
| nunez wrote:
| I haven't. I use my laptop to code; if I'm not doing that,
| I'm usually outside or doing something around the house.
| safety1st wrote:
| I've tried a lot of things like app blockers and so on, and
| what has given me the best sense of control is simply removing
| the phone from my physical presence. I.e. turned off or silent
| in my bag or in another room. And being intentional about when
| I bring it out. This has given me a huge productivity boost. (I
| commented about that boost a while back and some guy actually
| accused me of lying because he found it so unbelievable!)
|
| I still average about 2 hours a day on it. Most of this happens
| when I'm eating or using the bathroom and would not be
| productive time anyway. By the metric of this article that's
| still 1 month of my life per year. Not sure I see this as a
| huge problem, if I did, I could cut it down even further.
|
| Maybe we should be more concerned about a related figure - the
| time we spend consuming digital media, which is now pushing 8
| hours per day. The phone is a very pervasive vessel for that
| but when I cut back phone use I found that media consumption on
| other devices started creeping up so I'm trying to work out
| ways to avoid that. I think our lives are richer if we create
| more and consume less.
| rchaud wrote:
| Expand the TikTok ban to include Facebook and Instagram.
| Twitter and Truth to be spared as they're basically state
| broadcasters.
| monadINtop wrote:
| Nah I think twitter is among the worst. It doesn't actually
| make you more informed of anything actionable you'd actually
| benefit from being aware of. It just broadcasts the most
| shallow rage-bait possible, from a constantly updating stream
| of pointless arguments and mentally ill strangers.
|
| It honestly decreased my baseline well-being far faster than
| anything else, even when I'd just try to follow the most
| insular network of math academics and art people. At least
| tiktok was vaguely more positive and the occasional gnome
| footage or afghan giant conspiracy was fun.
| elorant wrote:
| Get a kindle and start reading books. That's what's keeping me
| from staring at a phone all the time. I might be spending
| similar amounts of time looking at a screen but at least I get
| something valuable out of it.
| trescenzi wrote:
| One of the things I don't get about the panic over phones is
| that we're panicking over phones and not what's done on them.
| Why buy a kindle, when you can use any of the many ereader
| apps out there? If the concern is discipline while on you
| phone there's also ways to lock yourself out of apps and
| websites after X amount of time on them.
|
| Even if many of us old school computer users don't quite like
| it phones are the general purpose computing devices for many
| people. There's no reason to worry about the generic time
| spent using them.
| elorant wrote:
| It's not just discipline. Kindles are more convenient too
| for reading. No refresh rate so you can spend hours reading
| without eye strain.
| trescenzi wrote:
| Yea that's totally fair. I'd actually second the
| kindle/ereader recommendation if the goal is to read
| more. One awesome feature of the kindle is that it auto
| syncs progress so you can use your kindle for most of
| your reading but if you're away without it the kindle app
| on your phone will know what page you're on.
| frereubu wrote:
| > there's also ways to lock yourself out of apps and
| websites after X amount of time on them
|
| I've tried this, but it feels like a big administrative
| burden, having to think about how long each app should be,
| when it should be available etc, similar to the feelings I
| had on Facebook about bureaucratising friendships (who's an
| "acquiantance", who's a "close friend").
|
| It feels like you have to make so many explicit decisions
| for digital stuff that was much more fluid before - don't
| want X to come to a party? Don't phone them.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I dunno. What's better about a book (at least, a fiction book
| read for fun) than HackerNews, for example? I mean, I don't
| think either is particularly good but I'm not sure how the
| book would be an upgrade.
| plagiarist wrote:
| There's hope for you, an individual, making decisions that
| reduce your phone usage. There is little hope for society as a
| whole.
| minzi wrote:
| Yeah this is more what I was getting at. I took measures
| early on to reduce my own phone time, but it seems like most
| people I know can't or won't.
| lukew3 wrote:
| Notice how gen Z is less anxious than Millennials and Gen x
| when it comes to losing their phone. I think that younger
| generations will have a better understanding of the addictive
| nature of phones from a young age and will learn that they will
| not go far if they are absorbed in their phones. My hope is
| that we will learn to use the easily available entertainment on
| our phones like we learn to use recreational drugs, with
| moderation and respect.
| lolinder wrote:
| > Notice how gen Z is less anxious than Millennials and Gen x
| when it comes to losing their phone.
|
| Wait, what? Has this been your experience? My sense has been
| the exact opposite: the younger the person the more attached
| to the phone and the more sense of existential dread when it
| goes missing.
| technothrasher wrote:
| Yeah, I'm Gen X and if I don't have my phone, it is an
| inconvenience. But my Gen Z son misplaces his phone and he
| is completely panicked and non-functional.
| warner25 wrote:
| Yeah. In 2015-2016, I was the commander of a few hundred
| new troops going through their initial Army training; not
| basic training, but the subsequent stage where they had a
| bit more freedom. When they violated the rules, I had the
| power to take away those freedoms, fine them up to a few
| weeks of pay, etc. Most of them endured that without
| blinking an eye.
|
| Eventually I confirmed with the lawyers that I could also
| take away their phones, and that _broke_ some of them. I
| mean that I had troops break down in tears in my office
| when I informed them of the punishment, and some went to
| extreme lengths to circumvent the punishment and secretly
| gain access to another phone. (They still had laptops and
| Wi-Fi, by the way, along with permission to borrow a
| phone if they needed to make an important call.)
|
| The Army has studied this a bit and found that not
| allowing troops to have phones during basic training is a
| _significant_ obstacle to recruiting right now.
| nunez wrote:
| Heavy HEAVY doubt given how many young kids are on tablets
| (or given one when they need to be pacified in social
| settings)
| nunez wrote:
| I think it's coming around.
|
| Screen Time on iOS (which Android picked up later) was a
| response to people being concerned about being on their phones
| all of the time.
|
| "Uglifying" hacks (mostly using the grayscale filter) are
| popular too.
|
| Then there are purpose-built devices like the reMarkable and
| Daylight Computer that tout "focus" as a selling point.
|
| All that said, I don't think we (in the US) are ready for a
| complete social media cleanse. Lots of people use tricks to
| reduce their social media consumption (not too dissimilar to
| quit-smoking tactics, interestingly), but the overall reaction
| to banning TikTok was overwhelmingly negative. Furthermore,
| their stats on phone use while driving are actually low; one
| study actually claimed that 90% of people did this (and my
| experiences walking and biking around all but confirm this).
| frereubu wrote:
| It feels like for a lot of people (I'm including myself in
| that) "reducing social media consumption" is a somewhere
| between "reducing my cocaine usage" and "reducing my heroin
| usage" it's so compulsive. I'm not sure there's much to be
| done except not be on it.
| nunez wrote:
| lol great analogy.
| adregan wrote:
| Any easy way to aggregate all of one's screen time data? On an
| iPhone, the data is limited to a few weeks in the screen time
| settings.
| Eumenes wrote:
| Silicon Valley: How can we DOUBLE that?
| markus_zhang wrote:
| That's like 5 hours per day? Doesn't seem the case for me even I
| consider myself pretty addicted. I don't even have 5 hours of
| free time in total, including poop and food time. But maybe
| average Americans do spend more time then me.
| smokel wrote:
| _> Reviews.org surveyed 1,000 Americans 18 years and older with a
| + /- 4% margin of error and a confidence level of 95%._ [1]
|
| Can one just dictate the error margin on a survey now?
|
| [1] https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/
| epistasis wrote:
| What do you mean by "dictate" or now"? Every survey always
| states the margin of error like that. Its a function of the
| sample size and introductory stats to get that number.
| smokel wrote:
| I somehow doubt that they actually randomly sampled from a
| representative population. It's more likely that they use an
| online audience who likes to fill out review forms.
| UncleMeat wrote:
| These error margins are derived mathematically from the
| population and results. They assume a representative sample.
| raincole wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_of_error
| drawkward wrote:
| Yes. There are calculators for the required sample size,
| relative to population, to achieve a specific MOE
| tugu77 wrote:
| As much as I'd like to support the overall sentiment of the
| article, or at least of the part that I actually read, the stats
| just don't pass the smell test.
|
| > If you're like one of the Americans surveyed by Reviews.org,
| this is one of 205 times today that you'll be checking the device
| in your hand. To spare you opening the calculator app, that's
| about once every five minutes you are awake or two and a half
| full months out of your year.
|
| That just can't be true. First of all, it assumes 1 minute of
| spending at the phone, every of those 1 times per 5 minutes.
| Totalling 5 hours a day. On _average_ for _everybody_. I 'm sure
| there are some outliers like that, but there are tons of people
| out there for whom there is no way they would get even close.
|
| To top it off, their sample was surely neither random nor
| representative. Of course you get heavily biased data if you are
| asking a tech crowd.
|
| I stopped reading at this point. Garbage in, garbage put, i.e.
| whatever conclusion they were eventually drawing was not based on
| actual facts.
| create-username wrote:
| 5:30 hours a day. 90 pickups a day. Averages for the week
| FollowingTheDao wrote:
| This Christmas, a relative's boyfriend was on his phone literally
| 90% of the time we were together. Even when we were opening
| presents. So I started talking to him. He kept looking at his
| phone but eventually he put it down. I just needed to get him
| talking about Lord of the Rings and it was over.
|
| Those of us who do not use phones at all we need to engage with
| these people who are suffering the worst. We need to show them
| that loneliness can be alleviated by other means.
|
| Please do not say this is all harmless either. The material they
| are looking at, and behavioral programing they are being
| subjecting to, is not harmless. I grew up watching old school TV,
| and I was never able to see anything remotely close to what an 11
| year old can see today.
| stavros wrote:
| Wait, why would you text someone in the same room? Like, to send
| them a video you're watching?
| aaomidi wrote:
| Yes. Or memes. Or political threads. Etc
| stavros wrote:
| Yeah that's OK though, right? Showing them on your phone is
| much more awkward. I don't see why that's mentioned in a
| negative light.
| award_ wrote:
| Yeh, this isn't weird imo. This whole article is junk.
| pawurb wrote:
| I'm 100% happy with my Nokia 110, only using smart phone at home
| for banking apps etc. Highly recommend switching to dumb phone
| for everyday use.
| create-username wrote:
| I'm looking forward to getting an Apple Watch with cellular
| service to be reachable although a dumb phone would be way
| cheaper now that you mention it
| nunez wrote:
| Lol, as if Apple would let you off that easily!
|
| The watch can't have a cellular plan of its own. It must be
| associated with the plan that's on the iPhone it's tethered
| to. If you use a dummy iPhone for this purpose, then the SIM
| for your primary number needs to be on that phone.
| create-username wrote:
| The carrier charges 5 EUR a month for the Multisim service
| raincole wrote:
| Is this "reviews.org" credible at all?
|
| The fact this article has "Best cell phone plans" in the middle
| of it tells me NO.
| award_ wrote:
| If this was a legit study I'd expect an arXiv link or similar
| instead. Looking at their methodology, it's vague enough to be
| interpreted as 'ok' but really I'd expect ALOT more information
| on their sample distributions, weighting done to that sample
| for comparison, etc. It skimps on all the actual details. Seems
| like clickbaity junk to me, but I'm open to the idea that there
| is meaningful studies to be had here on this subject, or that
| this was done in a proper way but was communicated poorly.
| Reviews.org surveyed 1,000 Americans 18 years and older with a
| +/- 4% margin of error and a confidence level of 95%. The
| survey results were weighted to reflect characteristics of the
| United States population using available data from the US
| census. Respondents were asked to refer to their phone's screen
| time report to determine the average number of times per day
| they check their phones, in addition to how much time in total
| they spend on their phones per day.
| GeoAtreides wrote:
| good bye books
|
| good bye deep thoughts
|
| good bye creativity
|
| good bye critical thinking
|
| turns out soma isn't a pill, but a screen
| chickenfeed wrote:
| I wouldn't say it's all trash, but I find TV like this. I
| loathe most of it finding it pretty vacuous. I am still drawn
| to it.
|
| We had a defining realisation last year when we found a Youtube
| channel where a guy cleans carpets. I found it more
| nutritionally satisfying than 99% of programming on the TV. It
| was and is totally eye-opening. I have a similar draw to
| nature. I can watch wild animals doing their thing. And get
| some entertainment with curtain twitching. I think it's just
| that inherent human thing - watching.
|
| I do like reading. The minutes I do this are ever dwindling
| through competition for my idle brain.
| chickenfeed wrote:
| I was very late to the party getting a smartphone. Didn't stop me
| picking up my laptop repeatedly. Visiting the same old haunts.
|
| I have yet to install Facebook or Whatsapp or similar. I think it
| would be the death of me. I spend way too much time on my
| phone/computer.
|
| I was in a care giving role and felt it couldn't leave my side.
| Since losing that person, I now rejoice in being able to leave my
| phone. Heck I didn't turn it on yesterday. And it has been
| sitting in the kitchen all day today.
|
| The telephone does fill me with existential dread as most
| communication with me is asking me for something or alerting me
| to something negative. Perhaps that's an age thing. Whereas the
| Internet is still pleasurable but a complete and utter time suck.
| timnetworks wrote:
| > Perhaps that's an age thing
|
| Sorry for your loss.
|
| It's a false sense of urgency thing. The kids just grow
| calloused to it, culminating in e.g. completely ignoring the
| door bell.
|
| I had a friend that decided to essentially go off the grid
| around 2000-2005, he's my age (gen-z), I remember him showing
| me a website he was developing with javascript and IE.
|
| Now he's asking me to help with the Google Play / Mac App stuff
| because it makes no sense to him. It isn't an age thing.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| In an age of smartphones, nobody would think of ringing my
| doorbell without texting first. Deliveries come with
| notifications. An unexpected door ring at this point is
| probably someone I don't want to bother dealing with like a
| salesperson.
| bpicolo wrote:
| > 27% use or look at their phone while driving
|
| The other 73% aren't admitting it. When I've driven down the
| street, seeing someone not on their phone is a rarity.
| CalRobert wrote:
| Being in a tall vehicle (like a double decker bus) - it is
| horrifying how many people are on their phones.
| walthamstow wrote:
| In traffic, this number approaches 90%. I see it through every
| window as I cycle past the queues.
|
| The funniest is when the lights go green and a large gap opens
| up in the traffic because someone has got sucked into their
| phone and forgot they were driving. Remarkably common.
| nunez wrote:
| I call it the three-second pause. It's always three to five
| seconds.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I just finished reading Jonathan Haidt's "The Anxious Generation:
| How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental
| Illness." It is a good read, especially for parents.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anxious_Generation
| dv_dt wrote:
| I often stream music or cast video thru the phone and do
| something like make dinner or clean, i suspect that time is in
| there too
| lanna wrote:
| Reminds me of this meme: https://i.redd.it/silx0aw4a1v51.jpg
|
| Our phones replaced numerous different devices. All the time we
| used to spend watching TV, listening to music, reading books,
| getting the news, playing games, talking to friends is now done
| on our phones.
| create-username wrote:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uGI00HV7Cfw
| lolinder wrote:
| > Methodology
|
| > Reviews.org surveyed 1,000 Americans 18 years and older with a
| +/- 4% margin of error and a confidence level of 95%. The survey
| results were weighted to reflect characteristics of the United
| States population using available data from the US census.
|
| Absent them explicitly saying otherwise, I think we need to
| assume that the survey was done of reviews.org visitors.
| Reviews.org has reviews for exactly three categories of services:
| internet providers, mobile phone plans and services, and TV and
| streaming.
|
| Weighting for US demographics isn't going to make this sample
| very representative--this survey is of people who are browsing
| reviews for a set of products that most people don't think too
| hard about, which also happens to be a set of products that is
| tightly related to screen time use.
| idunnoman1222 wrote:
| Rather than calling to question their methods it's Sunday so we
| all just got told our screen time for the week what do you guys
| got? ~4h a day which is 2 months..
| vacuity wrote:
| ~1h a day, so half a month. I use my laptop far more often, so
| naturally it's a lot different than a phone in when I use it
| and for how long, and of course what I'm using it for. On most
| days my overall screen time (phones, computers, and all) is
| probably comparable to others', so it's not really too much to
| be proud of on my end. I like to think I still have an
| advantage.
| brd wrote:
| I'm reading a lot of comments here that are defensive about their
| phone usage. I think that misses the point. It's fine to chase
| productivity (real or otherwise) and we can all rationalize how
| we burn our spare minutes: decompression, etc.
|
| Being able to be bored and have those creative thoughts enter is
| for sure a useful thing. I'd argue the more important thing is
| being comfortable with silence/boredom. Being able to sit in a
| meeting and let awkward silence stew; or make a sales pitch and
| quietly let the gears turn, is a super power. If you're the one
| at the table better with silence, you have an inherent advantage.
|
| Context: I'd put myself in the very low phone usage category but
| I still use my phone far more than I'd like. I pretty much just
| check email/text, HN, a bit of news, and occasionally doom scroll
| reddit. I'm also a developer turned exec/sales guy.
| evanjrowley wrote:
| My theoretical strategy for reducing smartphone time includes
| substituting it with a smartwatch. I.e., have my phone in the
| vicinity (as opposed to on my person) and only have the
| smartwatch equipped. At night, keep the smartphone away from my
| bed and only have the smartwatch and Bluetooth earbuds next to
| me.
|
| As a Pixel user, the first attempt in early 2023 was rough as the
| 1st gen Pixel watch had growing pains. I gave up on it but have
| recently started looking into this approach again. Hopefully the
| latest updates to WearOS will show an improvement, especially in
| battery life.
|
| I would have considered switching to Apple, but from what I've
| seen, there is no support for responding to Signal messages via
| the iWatch. That's critical functionality for me.
|
| If the technology pans out and the strategy is a success, then my
| comments here on HN will be significantly less in 2025.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Mine is to leave the phone on the charger and treat it as a
| "home phone" when I'm not out.
| xxohioanxx wrote:
| I just got a Pixel Watch 3 a few weeks ago and have been pretty
| impressed with the battery life so far. I'm getting 36-48 hours
| with always on display turned on. The Apple Watch that it
| replaced barely lasted 12 hours.
| HelloUsername wrote:
| > there is no support for responding to Signal messages via the
| iWatch
|
| Yes, there is? Through dictation
| nunez wrote:
| It's the notifications, stupid!
|
| Many phone apps have completely abused the notification system,
| transforming it into a slot machine of dopamine. Between this and
| "engagement" being metric number one in developing mobile apps,
| this outcome isn't surprising.
|
| (I am militant about what gets to notify me. Most of my apps are
| denied notification permissions. Any apps that begin to spam me
| get denied as well. I also do inbox zero, so any emails I get are
| either dealt with in the moment or are treated as a todo for
| later.)
|
| Ironically, as much as I loved smartphones and the iPhone in
| their prime, I'm thinking about going back to separate simple
| devices.
|
| I've always been a "simple" phone user (email, reading stuff
| online, camera/video, no social media, no games,no YouTube).
| Phones and tablets are becoming even more consumption focused,
| and it's clear that market forces are leaving people like me in
| the dust. (I'm typing this on an eInk Boox Go that I rooted,
| debloated and firewalled; sucks for "typical phone shit" but is
| amazing for reading.)
| bdangubic wrote:
| good luck trying to find a simple device - it is not possible
| anymore. and with the proliferation of eSIMs it is now hard to
| go buy a dumb-phone on eBay and get it "connected" to some
| carrier. I tried to resurrect my old RAZR and had a helluva
| time trying to get it working. your best bet is a smartphone
| with everything removed from it except messages and phone apps
| and the shutting everything off except cellular
| nunez wrote:
| I know. It bums me out.
|
| Small phones are all but extinct (unless you count the iPhone
| 13 mini that Apple discontinued, which I had and I absolutely
| LOVED). Again, market forces leave us simple folk behind. I'm
| broken for NOT wanting a 6.3" slate that can hit 2000 lumens
| on a bright day that requires a case because the titanium is
| too slippery.
|
| What I would LOVE is a small Kaleido eInk phone that runs
| Android on a mid-tier SoC. Rooted and debloated; no
| assistants or AI (like you described).
|
| I would use eLauncher to make a really simple launcher with
| the names of the apps I use (like I do on my BOOX) and Tasker
| to automate common tasks. (I want a simple interface so I can
| move around quickly and move on with my lifem, but have no
| problem with complexity so long as it's within my control.
| I'm a heavy user of Shortcuts, as terrible as that software
| is.) Since I already carry a fanny pack around everyday, I
| would just use a small mirror less SLR for point and shoot
| stuff like the Canon EOS M300.
| pearlchoker wrote:
| horrors! commmoners computing in the open!
|
| nobody complains when you're a nerd spending 9 months a year on
| your laptop.
|
| HN delivering that steady stream of Sunday ragebait as always
| frereubu wrote:
| Something new that I've seen is men standing at urinals on their
| phones. It really blew my mind that they can't even take a pee
| that lasts maybe 20-30 seconds without looking at their phone.
| What could you possibly do in that time in that position?
| wuiheerfoj wrote:
| Answer a few messages? Catch up on the weather or news? Why
| waste 30 otherwise useless seconds?
| CoryAlexMartin wrote:
| You can use the time to think and process, or to rest your
| mind. Hardly useless!
| jacobyoder wrote:
| I do it. Typically just checking a few message alerts, or
| finishing a news story, or starting a podcast download. It's
| less disruptive than checking those items in front of someone
| else, when you should be giving the other person attention.
|
| Do I have to? No. Do I always do it? No. But just today at the
| gym, I used the 30 seconds or so there to start downloading a
| podcast to listen to during my workout. Every button click
| takes a couple seconds, pause, wait, etc... Why not stack those
| non-productive times together?
| frereubu wrote:
| I guess, but doesn't that start to feel like the tyranny of
| productivity? If it doesn't take long while you're the urinal
| it doesn't take long just afterwards too, and then you can
| enjoy the feeling of having a pee! (Perhaps there's a
| blogpost in "Mindful pissing"...)
| jacobyoder wrote:
| After that, I need to be using my hands more - washing
| them, putting stuff in the locker, tying shoes, etc.
| Standing there for 20-30-40 seconds is one of the few times
| one or both hands are free _and_ my brain can go do
| something else for a bit (read, get a podcast, etc).
| jader201 wrote:
| I feel like people have a need to "fill the void" with
| productivity. It's like they can't be alone with their
| thoughts anymore.
|
| I feel like this is becoming a more serious problem than
| people realize.
|
| I also feel like people can't do tasks quietly, without
| having a feed of music or podcasts. I see it with my wife
| and my kids. None of them are able to carry out
| activities without some audio being steamed to their
| brain. Most people can't even work without headphones on,
| even in a quiet environment.
|
| Most people will say "what's wrong with that?", but I
| feel this is a symptom of some underlying anxiety, we
| just don't realize it.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Wuen you wash your hands, do you wash your phone too?
| BlackjackCF wrote:
| If I were a man, I'd be way too afraid to drop my phone into
| the urinal to do this.
| amelius wrote:
| If I were a man standing next to that man, I'd be worried
| about his aiming accuracy. And also whether his camera was
| properly shut off.
| bdangubic wrote:
| once you hit 50's it could take awhile at the urinal :)
| cafard wrote:
| Probably 30 years ago, a Washington Post columnist (a recent
| arrival from Philadelphia) thought it an illustration of
| Washington compulsiveness that he had seen a man at the gym
| take his pager into the showers. That I should say makes less
| sense, given the slight probability of saving half of one's
| shower duration in returning a call.
|
| Let me add that I am not one of the multi-tasking multi-
| monthers: the phone says that I had 32 minutes/day of screen
| time last week.
| amelius wrote:
| > What could you possibly do in that time in that position?
|
| Watch one ad on youtube?
| mvdtnz wrote:
| Just focus on yourself at the urinal. Most of us aren't looking
| at you and would appreciate the same courtesy.
| thingsilearned wrote:
| I try to get around with just an apple watch. The most
| frustrating part is needing (or worrying I'll need) to take an
| uber or a lyft (my main modes of transport). They discontinued
| their watch apps and their api's are very locked down.
| jasoneckert wrote:
| One of my favourite achievements of the past several years has
| been to actively _NOT_ use my phone.
|
| I started by eliminating social media accounts, which had an
| immediate and positive effect on my phone use.
|
| Next, I set hard phone time/day limits: no phone while hiking, no
| phone while at a social meetup or restaurant, no phone while
| shopping.
|
| Finally, I focused on what I _should_ use it for and stuck to
| only that: checking work email when I need to away from a PC (but
| replies wait until I get to a PC), the odd Googling when I 'm
| away from a PC, scrolling my tech news feeds once per evening for
| up to 20 minutes, and of course, missed phone calls/texts from
| friends and family (checked periodically, 1-2 times per day).
|
| And the end result? I'm very happy with my relationship with this
| non-invasive piece of technology, mainly because I ensured it was
| non-invasive.
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