There was always a way to get around the barriers I had constructed for myself. Even when I had somehow managed to abstain, I found myself looking at the limited apps I could access over and over: refreshing my email and my banking app, over and over. I was a rat in a lab, tapping the button for pellets.

Most social media apps cost nothing (or very little for what is on offer), but we must all remember that nothing in this world is free: if something costs us nothing but our time, then we are the product, our attention being packaged and sold.

The smartphone promised to be everything: a way to connect with others, to feel a part of the world. Every fleck of information at my fingertips, news and updates and advancements all coming thick and fast like the ocean through a broken porthole on a cruise liner. But the more time I invested, scrolling and looking, the more passive I became and... See more

I also remember a time when it was entirely unnecessary to tell people to log off. I was fourteen and life was filled with touching grass. I rolled in it. I drank cask wine and cheap bourbon bartered from weird old men outside grog shops on it. I was drunk with my friends in the park, my jeans covered in stains. My piss touched the grass, as I... See more