How We are Getting Dumb By Using Too Much Whatsapp
The Research of an Armenian Scientist Lead to the Conclusion We Are Atrophying Our Skills.
The first step to solve a problem is to recognize it. And I discovered I had one when I installed an app called YourHour. This simple app will tell you how much you use your phone per day, and how many times you unlock it.
I installed it after reading in one of Cal Newport’s books about how an average citizen unlock his phone around 150 times per day. This number points to widespread obsessive-compulsive behavior. It is not that I didn’t believe Cal (A brilliant author, worth to check his thoughts about the concept of Deep Work).
I just did not believe I had this compulsive behavior myself.
To my surprise, the app showed me that I was also unlocking my phone near 160 times and using it more than 4 hours per day on average. That is when I decided it was enough.
I didn’t want to miss everything around me. The scenes, the people. After all, even my wife I met in public transport, when — fortunately — smartphones were still not a thing.
I was committed to the battle against phone addiction. The first step was to fight the productivity excuse.
