How to Break Up With Your Phone

Every tweet, message, profile, and post pulls our brains in a different direction. We end up acting like water bugs, skittering on the surface without ever diving

Smartphones engage in disruptive behaviours that have traditionally been performed only by extremely annoying people.

if you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds, if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted, isolated, and overtired, if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought, if you wanted to reduce empathy, encourage self-absorption, and redraw the lines of social etique

IN THE PAST, if a person described herself as feeling happy, sad, excited, anxious, curious, frustrated, ignored, important, lonely, joyful, and existentially depressed within the space of five minutes, she likely would have received a diagnosis. But give me five minutes on my phone, and I can accomplish this and more.

so present in the moment that you feel as if you’re outside of time.

an intensely focused state of distraction.

One thought triggers another thought, which triggers another . . . and suddenly, you’ve had a breakthrough.

And just like time, once we’ve spent attention, we can never get it back.

designers manipulate our brain chemistry in ways that are known to trigger addictive behaviours.