Thanks for this Alex. Not a day goes by that I’m not horrified by it. I heard someone once say that phones are adult pacifiers and I cannot unhear it. I’ve been largely off socials for 8 months but am beginning to feel the creeping urge to return… and wondering if my usage will increase based on the stat you shared.
PS. Can we get a tutorial on your home screen/focus setting? 😇 A friend has it set up so they don’t get any notifications and they don’t show on the app icons - via short cuts - it’s pretty genius (but a pain to set up). What’s helped me most to reduce screen time is putting the phone on greyscale. Becomes so uninteresting to reach for.
Yes, it's just a custom "Focus" setting that hides notification badges on all apps, has a black back screen, and only one page of apps (since the rest save in the "apps" directory). It's essentially permanent Do Not Disturb mode, but you can set exceptions as I do for my partner. I have full tutorial on this in the LNW course, which I believe you already have access to? Happy to share if not
Do you not think what you’re doing with your phone might matter more though? Like this was interesting, and looking at my stats has convinced me I need to go disable half my notifications. But I read a lot on my phone, and I certainly don’t think continuously scrolling socials is the same level of mind-numbing as using the phone to read a magazine / book. So my screen time is pretty high but my pickups are pretty low, and I feel like a better metric of phone addiction might be the screen time categories section
What you're doing def matters. It would be an oversimplification to say pickups are vastly more important than screen time.
But your use case is kinda the perfect example - a lot of folks read books etc on their phone. While I'd rec getting on a Kindle for that, it's better than obsessively scrolling algos. People who scroll the socials or text nonstop have high screen time + very high pickups, which, to me, is an indicator of a deeper compulsion.
Do you like reading on your phone? Do you feel okay, and not icky about it? If so, you might be closer to being in "right relationship" with tech than most
Haha I mean… I hate reading books on my phone, honestly. However: I read a lot, books are $60 in Australia (for a f*#%ing paperback!), I refuse to _queue_ for an _ebook_ from the library, and I have an e-reader but find it nearly as awful as on a phone.
I actually do think I’ve a better relationship to tech than most, but then that’s not really a high bar these days is it?
I've tried it all: tracking screen time, grayscale display, deleting apps and turning off notifications, the whole shebang. None of it did the trick. Last week I decided to just get rid of the damn thing, for precisely the reasons you've laid out here. Switched to a flip phone. I don't see myself going back.
I had stopped looking at the screen time stats because I got my hours way down, but you’re right - pickups is a much better metric to look at. Often I just know, even as I pick it up, that the motivation is off.
I’m at 455 per week but I reckon at least a quarter of those are twitchy attempts to fill some internal void. On the plus side, I’m happy to learn that my most used app, based on hours, is Kindle.
Thanks for this article and the reminder to bring more awareness to my behaviour around this insidious little gadget
Those stats reveal that you are already quite "mindful" in terms of how you use your phone. Especially if you have online work! And yes, Kindle is a good example of why screen time can be less informative. Nice, Haydn.
My pick up rate will be astronomical. I enjoyed a weeks break when in Italy last week and take several week long breaks from social media. I’d like to be more proactive with the breaks. Back in 2018 a neurologist said that it was fully expected migraine attacks in direct correlation with the rise of smart phones. Disability by the disease is increasing, as predicted.
Thanks for this Alex. Not a day goes by that I’m not horrified by it. I heard someone once say that phones are adult pacifiers and I cannot unhear it. I’ve been largely off socials for 8 months but am beginning to feel the creeping urge to return… and wondering if my usage will increase based on the stat you shared.
PS. Can we get a tutorial on your home screen/focus setting? 😇 A friend has it set up so they don’t get any notifications and they don’t show on the app icons - via short cuts - it’s pretty genius (but a pain to set up). What’s helped me most to reduce screen time is putting the phone on greyscale. Becomes so uninteresting to reach for.
Yes, it's just a custom "Focus" setting that hides notification badges on all apps, has a black back screen, and only one page of apps (since the rest save in the "apps" directory). It's essentially permanent Do Not Disturb mode, but you can set exceptions as I do for my partner. I have full tutorial on this in the LNW course, which I believe you already have access to? Happy to share if not
Do you not think what you’re doing with your phone might matter more though? Like this was interesting, and looking at my stats has convinced me I need to go disable half my notifications. But I read a lot on my phone, and I certainly don’t think continuously scrolling socials is the same level of mind-numbing as using the phone to read a magazine / book. So my screen time is pretty high but my pickups are pretty low, and I feel like a better metric of phone addiction might be the screen time categories section
What you're doing def matters. It would be an oversimplification to say pickups are vastly more important than screen time.
But your use case is kinda the perfect example - a lot of folks read books etc on their phone. While I'd rec getting on a Kindle for that, it's better than obsessively scrolling algos. People who scroll the socials or text nonstop have high screen time + very high pickups, which, to me, is an indicator of a deeper compulsion.
Do you like reading on your phone? Do you feel okay, and not icky about it? If so, you might be closer to being in "right relationship" with tech than most
Haha I mean… I hate reading books on my phone, honestly. However: I read a lot, books are $60 in Australia (for a f*#%ing paperback!), I refuse to _queue_ for an _ebook_ from the library, and I have an e-reader but find it nearly as awful as on a phone.
I actually do think I’ve a better relationship to tech than most, but then that’s not really a high bar these days is it?
I've tried it all: tracking screen time, grayscale display, deleting apps and turning off notifications, the whole shebang. None of it did the trick. Last week I decided to just get rid of the damn thing, for precisely the reasons you've laid out here. Switched to a flip phone. I don't see myself going back.
I've been hearing this more and more. Love the switch to a 'dumb phone'. Much respect
Thanks. I've been hearing it more as well, which I find encouraging. Hoping that we're on a path toward a cultural self-correction...
Oh damn 👀🫣
I didn’t know this pick up tracking existed. Thank you (I think 😅)
Feeling bold - for last week my average pick up was 88 😳
That's a pretty solid starting point, especially considering you didn't know about it
I'm glad I now have a tool to stay aware of it. Thanks for writing this piece. So eye opening.
I had stopped looking at the screen time stats because I got my hours way down, but you’re right - pickups is a much better metric to look at. Often I just know, even as I pick it up, that the motivation is off.
I’m at 455 per week but I reckon at least a quarter of those are twitchy attempts to fill some internal void. On the plus side, I’m happy to learn that my most used app, based on hours, is Kindle.
Thanks for this article and the reminder to bring more awareness to my behaviour around this insidious little gadget
Those stats reveal that you are already quite "mindful" in terms of how you use your phone. Especially if you have online work! And yes, Kindle is a good example of why screen time can be less informative. Nice, Haydn.
This was great, I didn't know about the pickups tracking, thanks Alex!
Stoked to hear it
My pick up rate will be astronomical. I enjoyed a weeks break when in Italy last week and take several week long breaks from social media. I’d like to be more proactive with the breaks. Back in 2018 a neurologist said that it was fully expected migraine attacks in direct correlation with the rise of smart phones. Disability by the disease is increasing, as predicted.
I know I get a headache when I look at my screen too much, especially if I'm wearing my glasses instead of contacts :/
Fry fccccxvcfdggrs jjgm??;
Disagree