Addiction

Everywhere - people with their heads bent down.
Handing over their lives to a wretched phone.

Why?

Because we've been programmed by Silicon Valley.

They call them "micro-moments" in their marketing decks. Brief windows when you now instinctively reach for your device. Itchy fingers … hundreds of times a day.

It seems odd to think that less than 25 years ago very few people did this.
Apart from those 'impotent' business people playing with their Crackberries.

Phone pick ups:
⇥ Pre any conscious thought.
⇥ Immediately on waking up.
⇥ Before you've spoken to anyone.

Aside from the bad posture and your mental health, there's a creeping feeling of privacy erosion. You've already let your buying preferences out. And now AI has become your confidant and hourly therapist.

Admit it - you're hooked. But also know ... every touch is training the algorithm and every search narrows your worldview.

The way mobile devices got you was selling the idea you're doing something productive in "the gaps". But then those gaps become every waking moment.

You’re giving your attention to distractions that are neither urgent nor important.

Are you really that bored?
Or have you just been trained to be?
And have you forgotten the other choices you have?

Here are 6 things you could be doing instead:

1/ Carry a book.
↳ Not an e-reader. An actual paperback in your bag.

2/ Daydream.
↳ Let your mind actually wander. This is where great ideas come from not AI.

3/ People-watch.
↳ Observe that person on the train. Look at their shoes - make up their story.

4/ Doodle.
↳ Keep pencil handy. Draw patterns, write random thoughts, sketch badly.

5/ Take a breath.
↳ The scrolling isn't helping your stress and tension. Breathe in. Breathe out.

6/ Talk to strangers.
↳ Start a conversation in the queue. It used to be normal. It can be again.

These aren't hacks.
This is what humans did.
Before giving our attention away.

What if you ditched the phone for a week and focused on these instead?

Not forever. Just seven days.
⇥ See what you notice.
⇥ See what changes.

I double dare you.