There are many reasons that we’re tethered to our phones, but the one that I find the most infuriating is that our most time-sucking apps are deliberately designed to hook us – because that’s how their creators make money. These apps are part of what’s known as the “attention economy”, in which it’s our attention (and data about what we are likely to pay attention to) – rather than goods or services – that’s being sold.

In this economy, we are not the customers of these apps; advertisers are. We are, essentially, the product, manipulated into giving our most valuable asset – our attention – away for free.

The reason that this is important is that ultimately, our lives are what we pay attention to. We only experience what we pay attention to; we only remember what we pay attention to. Sure, there are many reasons we might want – or need – to pay attention to what’s on our phone. But it’s also essential to remember that, like time, our attention is a zero-sum equation: every minute we spend mindlessly scrolling is a minute we didn’t spend on something else, something we might actually care about. That’s a big deal, because these minutes, when repeated over hours and days and weeks and months, add up to our lives.

Read more:

Price, C. (2024, January 2). You have one life. Do you really want to spend it looking at your phone? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/02/smartphones-attention-economy-reclaim-free-time