How many times did you check your phone today?

 

http://kindofnormal.com/wumo/2014/10/10

In New Year's Resolution: 3 Ways to Cut Back on Digital Distractions, Dave Eisenmann writes:  "... one of my resolutions for 2015 is to cut back on digital distractions" and he linked to "Trying to Live in the Moment and Not on My iPhone" by Jenna Wortham and to Seth Fiegerman's "You've been on Your Phone for 160 Minutes Today" which suggest using apps like Moment and Checky to track one's personal iPhone use.

Dave reflects:

The totals that I'm confronted with from these apps have also caused me to think about what I didn't do because I was looking at a screen. Time spent talking with others, being with my family, looking up, listening, being outside...  all things I used to do more of before having constant access to a screen and the Internet. I'm glad I finally took the time to install both of these apps, and encourage you to do so, too.

I put Checky on my phone. Saturday, as the screen shows, I checked it 15 times.

So is 15 times obsessive, restrained, normal, abnormal? Does the number of times one accesses one's phone actually mean much?

I know that most of the times I checked my "phone" it had nothing to do with telephony (ironically my least used use of my phone), e-mail, text messaging, or other forms of communication.

I used it to check my location on a long walk in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I checked it to see when a movie would be showing. I read the book I was working on for awhile. I took pictures of my grandchildren. I used it to record a workout. I used it as my watch simply to check the time.

Yes, I checked my e-mail a couple times and I looked at my social networking sites. But did I disengage from others around me because the virtual world was more interesting than a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old opening Christmas gifts? I don't think so.

For as long as I can remember, I've carried a book with me. When eating alone, when waiting for someone or something, or simply when I am tired, I read. Should I instead be thinking deep thoughts, be solving the world's problems, be attuned to the world happening around me?  Hmmmmm?

Dave, I would suggest that it's not how much you use your phone, but what you use it for - and when. Yes, stay engaged with the world. Don't be looking at a screen when you should be looking at your children who will be grown and out of the house in about the next 30 seconds. (See cartoon above.)

You are a good and thoughtful person and it will take more than a piece of silicon to change that.

Happy new year!