Why does any of this matter? Surely time being informed, engaged and entertained by our phones is time well spent? Not necessarily: “life is more convenient than ever”, writes Alter, “but convenience has also weaponised temptation”. By comparison, in 2008, before smartphones became widespread, adults spent just 18 minutes a day on their phone.
The typical user checked their phone 39 times in 24 hours. The results were startling, even among those concerned enough to download the app: for 88% it was more than an hour a day, with the average being three hours.
I know a six-year-old who walks with his hands held to his chest, thumbs blurred by movement, adopting his dad’s habitual posture, though he doesn’t yet have a phone.Ī couple of years ago a programmer called Kevin Holesh, worried that his own screen time was getting out of control, wrote an app called Moment, which tracks how long a user is interacting with a screen (it doesn’t count time on phone calls). Last week a social worker told me that children in an “at-risk” family were being neglected – the mum lying on the sofa playing with her phone while the kids put themselves to bed. An adolescent patient told me that he wakes three or four times each night to check his phone for messages, and struggles to concentrate in class. In Irresistible, Adam Alter makes the frightening case that even without these hazards, modern connectivity threatens the health of not just our children, but everyone.Ī child I knew of killed herself after a humiliating post was shared widely around her school. I’m not sure when it became normal for kids to have to cope with malicious online messages, and be savvy about paedophiles masquerading as peers. The blurb on the leaflet promised parents of children between five and 11 would learn more about the dangers of the internet, and in particular, social media. It was in the school hall, hosted by police officers, and explained the role of something called the “ Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre”. T he school near the GP practice where I work held an internet safety evening recently, subtitled “How to Keep Your Child Safe Online”.
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