Phone Addiction

Like most of you, I have a love/hate relationship with my phone, along with social media, doom scrolling, what have you. This evening I came across a lecture by Arthur Brooks. You may have heard of him. I've watched a couple of his talks. I find him insightful as well as inspiring. (I ordered one of his books.)

This talk is titled, "You're an Addict, Your phone addiction is keeping you from achieving flow state." In it he makes a powerfully convincing case for us to admit we are addicted to our phones, and the need to change our behavior so that we can return to the states of mind that the homo sapiens brain was designed for. We have been short circuiting it with our devices.

Brooks mentions three strategies: tech free times, tech free zones, and tech free fasts. I won't break it all down here for you but in each category he suggests steps you should take. I'll leave it to you to follow up.

This endeared him to me: Brooks states unequivocally that there should be no cell phones in schools "Kindergarten through Ph.D, especially during lunch."..."and it's crazy that more than half the states...allow unfettered access to phones. That's simply a lack of courage and knowledge. At this point it is insanity..."

I plan to put his strategies to work beginning tonight and tomorrow morning. Watching this may be the best 33 minute investment in your own happiness you'll come across this month. Just sayin...WATCH IT!

Let me know in the comments if you think he makes salient points, and more importantly if you plan to take back control of your attention and allow your brain to return to it's "normal" state.