I forgot to take my phone out with me today – I survived, no harm done. However I was alarmed to see how many times during the day I went to my bag to check the phone that wasn’t there. I tried to shrug it off as the same as checking the watch you forgot to put on, but looking at the time is helpful, checking to see if anyone has texted me or what my twitter feed is telling me isn’t quite the same. It was first day back to work after Christmas so a slow news day – but that doesn’t excuse my compulsive checking. Phone addiction (and of course I am not addicted) is becoming quite a serious thing. I must admit that I eat my breakfast checking all aspects of my social media – plus a quick game of suduko (very good for the brain you know). Then I think that during the working day I leave well alone – but today’s experience showed that I do like more than the odd sneaky peak.
A quick Google of the matter seems to show that people check their phone between 110 and 150 times a day on average. To be honest this sounds a bit much – but if you look around in many restaurants, pubs, public transport and you will see people on their phones. It’s difficult not to judge when you see mums and dads out with their young children – on their phones. Pushing their children on the swing, sending a text or making a phone call. I was on the train the other day and a mother got on with her 10 year old daughter. Both of them got out their phones and didn’t utter a word to each other for the next 40 minutes. Now don’t get me wrong – my attention span when I pushed my kids on a swing was about 2 minutes – so no doubt I’d have been doing some sneaky texting if I’d had a chance. But I do remember lovely days out on the train with my boys – where the journey was filled with chatting, looking out the window at what we could see, discussing the day ahead. I’m glad I had my children in simpler times without the distractions that there are today. If my resolve back then not to allow the TV to be a baby sitter is anything to go by my kids would be masters of the Ipad!
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