Smartphones are stealing our time. This new year, I want to claim it back | Marcus Gilroy-Ware
I sit with a friend having some seasonal drinks. The second she gets up to go to the toilet, I catch myself reaching for my smartphone. But instead of taking it out and idly filling the two minutes she's gone, I flip the switch on the side to silent and look around the room instead. I'm practising for 2017.
On the face of it, smartphones might seem like hard things to hate. On average, smartphone owners use them for over three hours per day. By the standards of even five years ago, the handheld devices of today are extraordinary pieces of technology that enable a vast range of capabilities. Whether it is communicating entirely in emojis, piloting a drone, or Googling while on the toilet, the things we can do with smartphones would have amazed, and possibly terrified, our ancestors.
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