According to a recent study by Harmony Healthcare, 44% of Americans cannot go 24 hours without their phone, and 76% feel anxious if they do not know where their phone is. Thankfully, I’m not part of this group. My first phone was a basic feature phone in the mid-2000s, so I understand what it is like to be without a screen. Today, I could go a whole day without my smartphone, yet I rarely do, simply because it’s always close.
We like to think of phones as simple tools — small gateways to convenience, connection, and sometimes distraction. But for many of us, they have become an extension of our attention: always present, rarely out of reach. I don’t panic if I lose signal; what unsettles me is the gravitational pull of social media. I find myself nervously reaching for the phone when it is visible. Once I open a feed, I feel the creeping lethargy, the mental fog, and the difficulty of resuming any focused work. Thus, for me, the problem lies not in absence but in engagement. The structure of endless scrolling chips away at attention and worsens emotional well-being. It’s therefore not far-fetched to believe that these platforms are designed to trap us.
Hence, the role of a phone in my life is both liberating and distracting. I see in myself and others the tiny anxieties that arise not from disconnection, but from overconnection. Recognizing this tension, I believe, is the first step toward controlling it.
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