Mobile home truths ring true

WE all have the experience multiple times a day.

For some, it’s a slight reprieve from the daily grind. For many, it’s a recurring habit that can consume an unhealthy proportion of each day.

For others, it’s a rarer occurrence, and a true escape.

It’s that quick moment — that can quickly turn into a longer moment — where one whips that much maligned mobile device from the pocket, scans over applications on the home screen, searching for a reason to look at the phone in the first place, before stumbling upon a red bubble atop an application with a number inside the bubble, providing justification for the mindless act.

Why is it that searching meaninglessly through your phone has become such a common method of avoiding all aspects of productivity in day-to-day life?

More existentially, is that practice now so mainstream that it has suddenly become accepted as part of day-to-day life?

Certainly, from sheer observation, turning to one’s phone out of boredom or awkwardness has become not only accepted, but conventional. We often talk about the additions that smartphone devices contribute to our personal lives and the progress of our collective development, but it’s also worth asking: Have phones actually become a stalling device? When was the last time you were at a bus stop, on the couch, or, devastatingly, even at a red light when habit didn’t propel you towards your device to occupy your moment with a possible source of entertainment, and even more frighteningly, a source of company. I can’t. I have become increasingly conscious of this habit, a habit of which I am confident I am in good company.

Each time I feel compelled to look at my phone, knowing there are no urgent messages, I try to catch myself out.

Why is it necessary, and what compels you to lunge towards that metal brick so compulsively?

Although it might appear harmless, there is a great deal to be said about someone who can restrain themselves from turning this habit into routine.

Instead of developing habits of compulsiveness and a thirst to be constantly stimulated by an outside source, our mobile devices provide an opportunity to turn that on its head.

People can find solace in trying to develop skills that are becoming less common — selfcontrol, focus and the ability to be stimulated without a mobile device.

Want a challenge? Give it a crack.