for most people the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the time. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees’ free time. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office. Otherwise-sane people check their smartphones obsessively, even during pre-dinner drinks, and send e-mails first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
This is partly because smartphones are addictive: when Martin Lindstrom, a branding guru, tried to identify the ten sounds that affect people most powerfully, he found that a vibrating phone came third, after the Intel chime and a giggling baby.....
Ofcom, Britain’s telecommunications regulator, says that a startling 60% of teenagers who use smartphones describe themselves as “highly addicted” to their devices. So do 37% of adults.Read the full article here. It paints a grim picture of blurred boundaries between work and leisure, compulsive behaviour and a deluge of junk information.
Partly out of technological laziness, partly through being a tight-wad, I don't have a smartphone, or even a useable mobile. I spend enough time checking messages when I'm at my desk without doing it everywhere else as well. And when I'm in a meeting with someone who's phone is on, there's always the nagging sense that their entire world is in their pocket, jabbering to interrupt you, I'd much rather we were able to give each other our full attention.
How do other people manage their phones, or do the phones manage you?
No comments:
Post a Comment