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."
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.
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.
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.