Not Everyone Is Glued to Their Phone All the Time
Life Beyond the Screen
My friends and I often talk about how hard it is to manage our smartphone use.
Some have deleted Instagram or X because those apps eat up time. Others worry about their kids watching YouTube videos for so long. We can’t quit our phones completely, because we need them for school, work, and paperwork. But after we finish what we need to do, we keep scrolling. And suddenly, another 30 minutes is gone.
The media also talk about smartphone addiction, screen time, and loneliness. Big platform companies get richer, and inequality grows. All of this has made the future feel a little gloomy to me.
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But recently, something changed my mind.
At home, we play table tennis on our dining table. This is our go-to activity after dinner. We play about an hour a day, and my kids and I have gotten better, so we wanted to play on a real table. I found that a nearby community center had a gym with ping-pong tables.
We went on a weekend evening. The building looked very old from the outside, but inside, the gym was full of adults playing badminton and table tennis. They were all ages, playing, resting, and chatting, and they were having a great time. Not everyone is glued to their phone all the time.
This is obvious, really. When you worry about phone addiction, you notice every time someone looks at a phone. But there’s plenty of time when we don’t.
So maybe I should focus more on my phone-free time and make it richer and possibly longer. For me, that’s playing guitar, cooking, going out, and meeting friends. I enjoy these more than my phone (though I still use it a lot). And if I enjoy that time, I can also enjoy my phone time without guilt.
I mean, comedy short clips are just too funny. Laughing that much in such a short time is something to be grateful for. Then I start wanting to see comedians live on stage someday, and my interests grow beyond the screen.
Isn’t that the way to use a smartphone?
