THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: The Problem With Our Phones

They are hugely useful of course but in many ways, we buy the advantages our phones give us at a subtly high price we don’t entirely recognize. Some reflections on how to live well around phones.

The new iPhone is listing at $999. REALLY?? What the flippin' waldo is that all about?

WATCH:
(if you dare)

The dark truth is that it’s become very hard to find anyone (and certainly anything) more interesting than one’s smartphone. This perplexing and troubling realization has for most of us had huge consequences for our love stories, family lives, work, leisure time and health.

There is almost no relationship in which the presence of the phone has not had a profound impact. The genuine beauty and interest of our phones wouldn’t be a matter of such concern if we didn’t suspect, somewhere in our minds, that this machine has both opened some doors and is in danger of grievously closing others.

This essay knows we love our phones and would never want us to give them up, but it is also gently aware that these delightful gadgets bear a hidden cost. This is a text that aims to bring a little sanity to our closest, most intense and possibly most danger-laden technological relationship… MORE