Step Away From Your iPhone

iPhone - Ferrari 358 Italia

This interesting article by Nick Bilton of the New York Times accurately describes a compulsive addiction many have to iPhones and similar devices. Indeed, I found myself nodding in agreement as Nick describes how he habitually reaches for his iPhone many times within an hours period, even though he didn’t have to. Indeed, the compulsion by many people to photograph everything on the iPhone, then instantly broadcast it across Twitter, Facebook, Google + and so forth can be seen everywhere we go.

I’m a great believer in Chase Jarvis’ mantra of The Best Camera is the one you have in your hand when you see the image, but sometimes, it’s best to just sit and take in the whole scene, instead of trying to frame it through a tiny LCD screen. And that goes for other things to. Over the Christmas period, I zoned out of my social media connections and deliberately resisted the temptation to swipe my screen every time there was a pause in a conversation, or the little device ‘bonged’ a push notification. I did the same with my email, only checking it once or twice a day and having Mail turned off in between. This removed the time thief temptation of breaking off what I was working on to read emails that could wait. And I felt better for it.

iPhone is a great personal device and I’ll be writing more shortly about some of the useful apps I use for my work and others that I find entertaining. But just like Nick, while I won’t be giving up my iPhone and other technology entirely, I will be setting it down in another room for much longer periods than before. Twitter can wait for an hour, can’t it?