When and Why do we Pick Up our Phones?

We may check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: “There are the standard, conventional-sounding answers: we check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. We don’t pick up our phones to find out what’s going on, we pick them up to ensure – with considerable ruthlessness – that we are in no danger of finding out anything more about ourselves. If we forensically study the moments when we are drawn to pick up our devices, these are almost always when some kind of anxiety is pressing in on us – an anxiety on whose analysis and interpretation the correct navigation of our lives may depend. We are using our devices as an alternative to thinking about our futures, we employ our machines to block insight, to halt the business of processing, to alienate our minds from their most promising and complex substrata…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn: CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert phone addiction, psychology of phone use, digital detox, self-awareness, communication technology, screen time, mental health, personal growth, anxiety and phone use, avoiding self-reflection, phone use and relationships, phone use and productivity, overcoming phone addiction, introspection exercises, questions to ask yourself, mindful phone use,