Ditching the phone? It’s a yes from Cowell

Simon Cowell, the music mogul, has revealed that not using his mobile phone for 10 months has transformed his mental health for the better.

“The thing I get irritated with is when you have a meeting everyone’s on their phone – and I was probably in that place too. You can’t concentrate,” he told The Mail on Sunday.

“It has been so good for my mental health. It’s a very strange experience but it really is good for you and it has absolutely made me happier.”

Cowell said the change had made him “more aware of the people around him”. The television talent show judge has a four-year-old son, Eric, with Lauren Silverman, his girlfriend.

People walk down the street looking at them. On trains and buses everyone, it seems, is in thrall to them. They have taken the place of the newspaper, the book and the music centre all rolled together. The mobile phone is ubiquitous; and while it can be a great boon, even a life-saver, for some it has become an obsession.

Simon Cowell, the television presenter and media mogul, has broken free and managed to live without his smartphone for 10 months. As a result, he is now “more focused and aware of people around me”. It has been good for his mental health, he said. Other celebrities are apparently following suit and giving up their phones.

Is a trend being set? Can we expect Donald Trump, a prolific user of social media, to dispense with his phone, or is that too much to ask?