Waiting for a train, walking to the shop, finding love, or taking a shit. No matter how you spend your time, your actions will be punctuated by the use of one of the wonders of the modern world: your phone. A piece of technology so well designed that it could slide effortlessly into any activity or setting and cater to any mood which may overtake you.
Before its invention, however, a different item would be occupying the space between thumb and forefinger.
The cigarette.
Culture has shifted away from this vice and the benefits of a smokefree society are numerous.
But, in the rush to throw out the pack, we overlooked our tendency towards addiction.
From the bus driver to the prime minister, we’re all driven towards quick pleasures and brief releases. This tendency towards addiction manifests itself in the smartphone as it did with cigarettes before.
We failed to consider what the social ramifications of digital addiction would be.
Unlike smoking, smartphone use is insular, private, and individualistic.
Smoking forced social interaction in the real world: stopping a stranger for a lighter in the street, complaining about management in the short window of unmonitored socialising a cigarette provides, or sharing a smoke with a lover.
All these and other spontaneous moments of socialisation are lost with the smartphone.
We hide from each other in the solitude of our screens and share no community in our consumption of it.
You don’t make friends scrolling in the club.
We switched out one addiction for another and made ourselves lonely doing so.
I’m not suggesting you go out and smoke yourself to death.
But next time you find yourself with five free minutes and feel the drag towards the box of blue light, share a smoke with someone instead.
I guarantee it’ll be more memorable than whatever slop you would have seen on your screen.
