Arthur C. Brooks warns that checking your phone 205 times a day and spending 4 to 9 hours on screens leaves you feeling grindingly bored when you look back. He argues you'll regret missing real connections with family and friends far more than missing online time.
We look at the phone, we scroll the social media, we listen to the podcast, we wipe out every moment of boredom. But when you do that all day, be honest with yourself. How interesting is your life? I bet it's grindingly boring. And if you're spending 10 to 12 hours a day behind the screen and checking your phone 205 times a day, you're in danger of getting to the end of your life saying, well, that was pretty boring because I was never bored. If you want to know the stakes here, think about your eulogy and what you want people to say about you. Think about what you want to think about yourself at the end of your days. How do you want to look back on your life now compared to how you're spending your life right now? I dare say that if you're like the average American, checking your phone 205 times a day, spending somewhere between 4 and 9 hours on your screens, if you were honest and you got to the end of your life right now, you'd say, I spent a lot of time online. But one thing you wouldn't say is, I sure wish I'd spent more time online. You'd say, I wish I'd spent more time with my loved ones. With my friends, with my family, getting to know people, having real life experiences. That's what you'd say, right? Well, that's what to go do. That's the argument for this. I know breaking a tech addiction is hard. I get it. It's hard for me too. And the younger you are, the harder it is. But those are the stakes. What are you going to say when you come to the end of your days? It was really boring because I wiped out boredom. And I could have done even, even better if I spent even more time on Instagram. I don't think so.
