Like many of us, I spend too much time on my phone. And, like many of us, I am acutely aware of – and often feel guilty about – this fact.Sometimes, I’ll leave it at the other end of the house, or turn it off, to use it less. But, sooner than I’d like to admit, I’ll wind up walking down the hallway for something I need to do that I can only – or can do more efficiently – by phone. Paying a bill? Phone. Arranging a coffee date with a friend? Phone. Messaging family who live far away? Phone. Checking the weather, jotting down a story idea, taking a picture or video, creating a photo book, listening to a podcast, loading up driving directions, making a quick calculation, even turning on a torch? Phone, phone, phone.
The first cellphone call
Martin ‘Marty’ Cooper spoke to the BBC about the first ever mobile phone call, which he made 50 years ago from a beige, brick-sized device that looks very different from today’s sleek, glass-covered smartphones.
Although his device had no messaging, no camera and only 30 minutes of talk time after 10 hours of battery charging, he doesn’t think much of the modern smartphone as a device for making phone calls.
“It’s really not a very good phone in many respects,” says Cooper. “Just think about it. You take a piece of plastic and glass that’s flat – and you put it against the curve of your head. You hold your hand in an uncomfortable position.”
Read more of Cooper’s interview with the BBC’s Technology editor, Zoe Kleinman, and how he thinks mobile phones will change in the future.
One recent report found that adults in the US check their phones, on average, 344 times a day – once every four minutes – and spend almost three hours a day on their devices in total. The problem for many of us is that one quick phone-related task leads to a quick check of our email or social media feeds, and suddenly we’ve been sucked into endless scrolling.
