According to Kate Snow on NBC news, the average person spends 9 hours per day on their iPhone. That’s more than half of your waking hours, and it is the new normal. How could anyone find so many interesting things on their phone? My phone tells me I spend about half an hour a day checking e mail, Facebook, a few news reports, and messaging. Apparently, I’m a total oddball in today’s culture, but that’s fine with me. Who wants to be normal?
Facebook is usually full of spam from people who’ve somehow gotten into my account. I enjoy updates from family and friends about what they’ve been doing, but it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to scroll through these new posts.
The fact is, I don’t always know exactly where my phone is. I carry it in my car, and when I’ walking in the park or shopping. But I’m liable to leave it in my car, or somewhere in the house, so far away that I don’t even hear when it rings. Often, I have to call from my landline to find out where my cell is buried under a pile of papers.
How do I spend those extra 8 ½ hours “off” my phone. For starters, I read two morning newspapers: The local paper for gossip, obits, road closings, and city politics. The Indy paper for better coverage of all national news, and what’s going on in the big city where my daughter lives with her family. Both papers have thinned down in the past few years, but it’s still fun to read the funnies, the bridge column, the editorials, recipes and local sales ads. There is nothing more enjoyable than morning coffee while spending an hour poring over the newspapers.
More importantly, I get to read some wonderful books. Have you read the biography of the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor? I can assure you it’s vastly more interesting than scrolling through Twitter, Snap Chat, Facebook and Instagram. Another fascinating biography is about Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza.
Then, there’s the old fashioned habit of “visiting” with family and friends. Yesterday, our daughter and her husband stopped by to help us plant geraniums and have lunch. After their daughter arrived, we sat around the table talking and laughing, only using our phones to share a few pictures. No one seemed more interested in their iPhone than sharing stories and talking politics.
I know, reading books, and visiting around the dining room table are outdated pastimes from another era. But they’re much more fun than scrolling through twitter. Who wants to be normal?