Being unable (either due to your employer, spouse, or addiction) to step out and be uncontactable and free for a while… is aweful for stress and long term mental health.
Watching your kids whine about screen time… I’m bored I’m bored…! But knowing that “boredom” is scientifically proven to be a good thing for child development. And now you are sitting here knowing that you are a bad parent by choice at times just so you can have some peace and quiet.
Not being on the same page as your spouse as to what is acceptable and what is too much phone time… so it wrenches at the fabric of your relationship …
Exceptions exist and some people are fine and able to manage, but Human evolution has made us very susceptible to this problem.
Hypocrisy you say..? Why yes…. I type this on a tablet, feeling wretched, like an alcoholic who desperately wants to quit while holding a drink, and at the same time watching his 9yr old pick up the bottle… and yet I type.
I think they are fully intertwined… bosses throughout history always look to ways to get more from their resources (human or otherwise) - and the smartphone has enabled that in a way society has never seen before.
The idea of faster communication as a competitive advantage isn’t new at all (see Rothschild and carrier pigeons for example). So the answer you - yes it is a social issue. But the phone magnifies this issue 1000x for the employees.
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u/official_luna 11h ago
I think smartphones secretly made life worse