Screen Time by Phillip Maciak review – why we’re hooked

A relatable but ultimately unsatisfying exploration of what staring at a phone all day does to the soul

There are people who sleep with their smartphones beneath their pillows. Out of convenience? Or through some vague hankering after a marriage of technology and dreaming, the creation of a more stretchy, psychedelic reality? There are people, too, who spend the night holding their phones just as they might once have held the hands of their lovers.

Phillip Maciak recognises this scenario very well. One of the premises of Screen Time is that screens should not be seen as discrete objects, things that in times past sat in the corner of a room or on a desk. Nowadays, the functions of TV sets and record players can be accessed on phones and iPads that are small, portable, designed to make life without them almost unimaginable. Screens have become less like devices and more like implants.