If you’re blessed with fortitude and don’t mind learning something displeasing about yourself, look at the app on your phone that monitors how long you spend each day hunched over the small screen. If you’re like most people, you divide that amazing number of hours between checking email, killing time with dopey videos, engaging in pointless arguments on social media, and perhaps half a dozen other footling activities. Hours on your phone don’t include time on a tablet, or doing serious and productive work on your office computer. The point is that if you are like most people, your screen is hogging your time.
About six or seven years ago, I started an unscientific survey as I commuted to and from work in my car. I’d simply count people I saw through the windshield and noted the number who were using their phones. If I remember rightly, only about 1 in 5 people were on their phones when I started doing this, but within a short space of time, the number rose. Now at least half the people I see on Washington’s sidewalks, waiting at bus stops, pacing back and forth on a call, or, like me, driving their cars, are glued to their phones.
