Put The Phone Down and Read This (Unless You're Reading on Your Phone, In Which CasePut it Down After You Read.)
It’s all explainable.
This is what I tell myself as I stare at the screen time report from the last week. 4 hours and… how many minutes per day? I blink and blink, considering the nearly thirty hours I’ve spent swiping a screen in the last week. All things are justifiable, though, so I consider work, hadn’t I texted clients on an almost constant basis last week? I traveled last week, too, which meant my phone was my primary way of checking and responding to email.
I’ve more justifications than John has Calvin, but how can I make sense of the countless minutes spent on WordTower+ or hours streaming YouTube? (Listen: Fujifilm released the X100v, Bishop Barron dropped an incredible video on the three essential elements of the church, WheezyWaiter tried meal planning, and Hopper is alive. Don’t judge me.) How could I justify my need to check the news feed multiple times per hour?
I’m not attached.
I can quit whenever I want.
At least I can scale back if I want.
At least, I think I can. Right?
I consider that report just before my weekly jaunt to the house of God, the place where no one should hide from the truth. And if I’m to say any prayers honestly, I suppose I have to admit a basic truth: I may not be addicted, but I’m at least inordinately attached to my smartphone. (For more on what constitutes “inordinate attachment,” grab my book, The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Life That Reorders a Life.)
The Cold Hard Smartphone Facts
Smartphone attachment: It’s ubiquitous these days. Rescue Time, a productivity app that limits distraction by blocking email, text messaging, social media websites, and other distracting apps, reviewed their user data on smartphone use. According to their research, the average cellphone user accrues 3 hours and fifteen minutes of screen time a day. The top 20% of users are on their cellphones more than 4.5 hours. What’s more, the average cellphone user checked their phone 58 times a day, with 30 of those check-ins happening during working hours.
Every buzz, ding, or flash of the screen demands attention. In boredom, reaching for our phones is our primary reflex.
What do these statistics show us? Perhaps they indicate the extent to which so many of us have developed disordered attachments with our cellphones. (What is a disordered attachment? Read my latest book for more.) Philosophically, they might indicate a sort of human evolution of homo sapiens to homo cellphonus. On a more practical note, the statistics show how often we “context switch” or move from one task to another. And according to all the research, constant context switching is neurologically exhausting, saps us of our willpower, and interferes with our ability to get the most important things done.
And dammit all if I’m not the king of context switching.
This is the week I intend to right the ship. I’ll try to get my screen time average below 3 hours, the push even further. How? Incrementally. Follow along this week and discover whether intentional, incremental action makes a difference.
Life Examined: Do You Know Your screen time Stats?
1. Do you know how much screen time you spend on your phone on any given day? Look at your screen time reports for the last few days (most cellphones keep thee in an easy to locate place, such as your “Settings” app. Is it more than 3 hours?
2. What apps do you use most? Are they productivity tools or time wasters like social media?
3. Make a plan for cutting your screen time down this week, particularly during the workday. Turn of notifications on your most distracting apps. Consider turning your phone off for a few hours in the morning, or placing it on the other side of the room (keep the ringer on in case your wife, child, or mother calls).
***A Special Invitation***
What to hear more about how you can help bring a book on silence to life? Don’t forget to head to my latest Substack post for more.
THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.