TECH TALK

More than two billion people around the world have cell phones. A study by British psychologists found people check their phones about 150 times per day. They check it about twice as often as they thought. So, if you don’t think your phone rules your life, you might be wrong. These little devices capture our attention and have changed the way we do everything. From watching concerts to hailing cabs, tech has a hand in it all.

Studies have begun to show the damage done by smartphones. Microsoft has studied how our attention spans have shortened and memories have suffered. Our work-life scales have shifted in favor of work.

Remember the good old days when you knew your spouse’s phone number or your own?

What’s worse is that those designing tech know what they’re doing. They not only know the risks, but they try to exploit weaknesses in neural pathways. Former Apple staff members have reported deliberately designing smartphone features to hook people. They want their devices to affect us the same way gambling and drugs do. Our brains get addicted to new information, and the executives at Face-book know it. They’ve admitted the site was designed to hook users with dopamine-driven feedback loops.

Bank of England analyst Dan Nixon has argued smartphones also damage productivity. He claims that, on average, it takes 25 minutes to get back on track after an interruption. Email is a procrastination culprit. Those who get interrupted by emails often are prone to “self-interrupt” with breaks.

How can you break the cycle? You can ownload Space, an app designed to break the immediate feedback cycle at https://youjustneedspace.com/

Use Apps like Moment for iOS or Antisocial for Android to help you monitor your cell phone use.