[Djonckheere]

What a sobering indictment of our screen-obsessed world. It seems all roads lead back to the introduction of the smartphone —the mid-2010s, a critical turning point:

> "Never before has there been a technology like the smartphone. Where previous entertainment technologies like cinema or television were intended to capture their audience’s attention for a period, the smartphone demands your entire life. Phones are designed to be hyper-addictive, hooking users on a diet of pointless notifications, inane short-form videos and social media rage bait."

> "The average person now spends seven hours a day staring at a screen. For Gen Z the figure is nine hours. A recent article in The Times found that on average modern students are destined to spend 25 years of their waking lives scrolling on screens."

[HPsquared]

Seven hours is the average person. I'm closer to 12 hours a day. The rest is sleeping / driving / walking / cooking. And during those times, I'm usually listening to something.

[saulpw]

It's hard to know how seriously to take this article when it doesn't even get this basic fact right. The iPhone was introduced in 2007, which is notably not the mid-2010s.

[tim333]

Prior to the smartphone people used to stare seven hours a day at the TV which wasn't much better. At least the internet is two way - you can write as well as take in info.