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Hey all,
Just a bit of off-topic discussion I hoped to kick-start, based on a new focus that mobile vendors seem to have had for the past few months, and thinking about my own relationship with my mobile.
Digital Health
This is the new trend and focus I mentioned above. On Apple devices this is called Screen Time, where iOS will give you real-time reports on how you’re using your device, and give you ways to manage it. Android users aren’t missing out either, as Google have created their own Digital Wellbeing tool, intended to give access to similar reports and management options.
The problem with these tools are that they’re entirely optional, and rightfully so – but if you never look at these or enable any kind of time management or reporting, you’ll never know. I think for many of us, we’d probably be pretty shocked at just how much time we spend on our mobiles… And that’s my question to you all…
Is using your mobile ‘too much’ a bad thing?
I’m in split minds. I do *everything* on my mobile – weekly grocery shopping, keeping in touch with friends and family, photography, gaming, entertainment, alarms, calendars, notebook. I won’t lie, I would be completely lost without my phone so I realise and understand I do have a bit of a dependency issue when it comes to my mobile – and I’ll bet it’ll be the same for all of us. That, in itself, I don’t believe is that much of an issue… The way the world is moving, it seems like more and more of us are communicating with or via machines/computers, and less with real humans, so over time (decades or generations) will we start losing our social and non-digital communication skills?
Bad habits, or just part of modern life?
If I wake up in the middle of the night, I like to think it’s just because I had too much water before bed and I need to “get to business”, but more often than not I tend to spend 2 minutes quickly scanning notifications on my phone before going back to bed. But am I waking up sometimes because I *need* to go for a pee, or is there something deep in my conscious where really, I’m waking myself up to check my phone?
Final thoughts, and some digital health suggestions
If I could sum up the experience I have with my mobile, it would be this: “Ultra convenience at my fingertips, with distractions everywhere”. As I said earlier, I do everything on my phone – heck, nearly all of my purchases made in physical shops is done via contactless, because why fumble about getting the card out of my wallet when I can just tap my phone? But all that convenience comes at a cost; A cost that I can live with and make peace with, but I do think there’s some things we can do to try and improve our relationship with our mobiles.
Enable screen-time or digital health. Check it maybe once a week to get an idea of how you’re using your mobile, for what, and how long – If it shocks you, it probably tells you you’re on it too much, and it may make you think about limiting yourself somewhat, or at certain times of the day.
Night time routines. Put it down screen first and out of sight – that way potential distractions if you happen to wake up should be minimised. This will work best if you enable do not disturb mode… I have mine on a schedule, activating every weekday at 10pm, and turning off at 7am.
Create backups of your phone/data. I think part of my dependency on my phone could be the horror idea of losing it – and all my data. So I’m thinking that by creating regular backups, saving my photo memories to the cloud etc, it will lessen that fear of ‘losing everything’, and thus improve the me/phone relationship.
What’s your phone/you relationship like, and do you have any tips or thoughts of your own for improving it?
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@pgn wrote:In Germany, it's called a "handy" - which is what it is, @TallTrees. Thanks for the nice comment.
Yes it is handy! @pgn
Thanks for the info.
I wonder do the Germans "fret" over how much they use their Handy
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@TallTrees wrote:
I wonder do the Germans "fret" over how much they use their Handy
Hmm. Interesting thought, @TallTrees 
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@pgn wrote:
@TallTrees wrote:
I wonder do the Germans "fret" over how much they use their Handy
Hmm. Interesting thought, @TallTrees
I had to read that twice
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Got to be VERY careful "how you tell em"
on this forum @Cleoriff
are you recovered ~
One for the memory cleo
Going for a lie down
- 41235 Posts
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@TallTrees wrote:Got to be VERY careful "how you tell em"
on this forum @Cleoriff
are you recovered ~
One for the memory cleo
Going for a lie down
Don't fret over it, @TallTrees - it's "all in the best possible taste" 
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Simply disgraceful....
@TallTrees wrote:
@pgn wrote:In Germany, it's called a "handy" - which is what it is, @TallTrees. Thanks for the nice comment.
Yes it is handy! @pgn
Thanks for the info.
I wonder do the Germans "fret" over how much they use their Handy
Yes that amused me when I was learning German at Secondary school.
As I went to a very strict Catholic Secondary school sharing such humour would have probably landed me in detention.
I like your humour.
