Sierra Campbell tells me she does “like 50 things a day” to curb her screen time. There’s a widget on his home screen that shows details of the hours and minutes he’s spent on his phone that day. It has the Brick, a small, square device that blocks distracting apps as long as you don’t touch it with your phone. She carries a tote bag full of crossword puzzles and watercolors that, when she has time to kill, she reaches for her phone instead of grabbing it. Sometimes she leaves her phone in “phone jail” – a special box she bought at Goodwill. And she spends one day a week completely phone-free.
However, he hasn’t tried to get rid of his phone completely. “I want to meet my friends and stay informed,” said Campbell, 31, who lives in Santa Cruz, California. “I really like social media.” Actually, social media is their job. She’s a full-time lifestyle influencer who posts about her strategies for reducing screen time. “I want to use myself as an experiment for other people,” she said. “I feel like I’m a good person to stand in the gap.”
It seems like a lot of people are looking for help distinguishing between having your phone completely take over your life and not having a smartphone at all. Although there have been sales of so-called dumbphones on the rise In recent years, driven by fewer distractions, 91 percentage Americans still have smartphones. Appliances have become so ingrained in everyday life that turning them off completely is not practical or desirable for most people. At the same time, more than half of American adults said in a survey Last year they wanted to use screens less. one in 2022 Gallup pollMost respondents said they use their smartphones a lot, And Most said their phones had made their lives better.
is the word that describes many people’s relationship with their phones DilemmaJoshua Bell, an anthropologist and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, told me. “Technology is wonderful, but it’s also very strange, and it can cause a lot of harm and joy,” he said. This dilemma is one of the major stresses of modern life. And for many people, it can’t be eliminated – only managed.
Evidence of people’s desire to manage their phone usage is everywhere. Campbell has received hundreds of thousands of views on his videos on how to put together “Analog Bag” Similar to her crossword-and-watercolor tote. Screenless hobbies like board games, equipAnd to knit Have become popular. stationary store are making a report increase In customers. artist’s pathA three-month long creativity program that recommends writing long “morning pages” every day and a week-long “media deprivation.” a renaissance is taking place. since 2018iPhones and Androids have given people the ability to set time limits for certain apps. brick and similar equipment Safes where you can lock your phone More formidable obstacles to scrolling have emerged to satisfy the desire. Some people have also adopted more retro technology, including alarm clocks, Polaroid cameras, etc. physical media Such as DVDs and records, as a strategy to avoid phones.
One reason why so many people feel the need to stay away from their phones, of course, is that it’s essentially a Swiss Army knife on steroids – it happens. too much. The National Museum of Natural History’s exhibition “Cellphones: Unseen Connections” shows how smartphones have taken over so many of life’s functions and activities. a wall label before cell phones Equipped with a planner, a photo album, video tapes, books, games, an egg timer, travel guides, a TV, a flashlight, a camera, a CD sleeve, an atlas, a boom box, a watch. It’s all “stuff that your smart device can replace,” said Bell, who led the team creating the exhibit (which, naturally, is sponsored by Qualcomm and T-Mobile). The objects came from the curators’ homes – Bell claimed a Game Boy and some They Might Be Giants concert tickets as his own. The phone, Bell said, “becomes a device for everything. And so, why wouldn’t you keep it in your hand?”
Once it’s in your hand, even if you’ve just picked it up to do one thing, everything else inside it screams for your attention. Perhaps you went to take a photo or make an appointment in your calendar, and suddenly you’re bombarded with messages like “something happened in the news, or ‘Here’s something from your Instagram feed,'” Hansen Hsu, sociologist and curator of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, told me.
Some equipment installed on the wall of the museum-digital cameras And CDFor example, it has recently seen a renewed appeal, especially among young people. This may be partly due to nostalgia: in 2023, a survey By new York Times And a Harris Poll found that 60 percent of Gen Z wished they could go back to a time when everyone was “plugged in.” But the appeal of these retro technologies may also be that they only do one thing. You can focus on them without the risk of getting caught up in everything else. Smartphones have incorporated many things into themselves; Now, it seems, many people would like to open some of them.
Partial unbundling is probably the best thing most people will be able to do – because much of society’s infrastructure is designed around smartphones. Many workplaces expect employees to be contactable via email or Slack when they’re not present in the office. Devices that accept Apple Pay or Google Pay are now available here large number at retailers and many forms of public transportation. Many restaurants default to QR codes instead of paper menus. you don’t do that to pass Keep your airplane boarding pass or your concert ticket on your phone, but it’s definitely faster to get through airport security or to an event venue if you have one. Getting an Uber or Lyft is much easier than finding a taxi. Friends share their location to find each other in crowded places, or share Venmo with each other to split restaurant checks. (You could try giving your friend $35 in cash to pay for your dinner, but it probably won’t fit in their magnetic smartphone wallet.) Even Girl Scouts take Venmo for cookie sales.
The solution to the distraction and anxiety caused by smartphones should be some kind of self-discipline. This can take many forms: limiting the apps on your phone, accessing social media only on a desktop computer, setting screen-time limits and following them, replacing some of your screen-based leisure time with analog hobbies. Doing these activities works in terms of improving one’s mental health or repairing one’s focus from the damage caused by too much screen time. People are doing something with it: psychological research has been found Blocking a smartphone’s “smart” features can actually improve a person’s well-being and focus.
However, the problem with self-discipline as a solution is that its effectiveness depends on the willpower of the individual. I’ve found myself swinging between extremes — deleting TikTok, then downloading it again, setting hard limits for certain apps, and clicking “Ignore” when the limit takes effect.
Campbell was inspired to get serious about screen time when she was pregnant with her first child a few years ago. She wanted to set a good example for her daughter. She knows from experience that screen fixation can start early and be hard to kick. “In fourth grade, I was in trouble because of Tamagotchi,” he said. This habit continued until she began implementing every strategy she could think of to end what she referred to as an “addiction.” One of those strategies is to repeat an affirmation to yourself when she feels tempted to doom: “My children deserve a drug-free mother.”
Although Campbell is trying to protect her children now, the love-hate dilemma about technology is something they may well have to deal with as they grow up. Society is unlikely to become the pivot Less Designed around smartphones, and tech companies will likely continue to use every tactic they can to get attention. “The stress is still there for me,” Campbell said, “and my screen time is really under control.” If people can’t or won’t find a way to live without smartphones, they’ll have to find a way to live with them. Or maybe 50 different ways.
