Life on a Phone
This is a non-technical post. I don’t do many of these. Recently though I was trying to teach my 15 year old son how much of his life will be spent on a phone or mobile device. I want him to at least have a concept of the value of time. When you’re young, time is seemingly infinite. If we’re honest, the truth in the end, for all life on earth is that it is not.
I won’t say much more but just wanted to put a table of numbers here I created for him to show the percentage of his life wasted looking at a device that makes it feel like you are living, but in fact are not. These numbers for my son account for the fact that he didn’t have a phone until freshman year of high school (14). Do the math as to how much worse this is for those of you handing devices to your 2 year old children.
| HOURS ON DEVICE/DAY | TOTAL ON/YEAR | TOTAL FREE HOURS IN YEAR (MINUS SLEEP AND SCHOOL/WORK) | PERCENTAGE OF LIFE/YEAR | % OF LIFE IF LIVE TO 60 | % OF LIFE IF LIVE TO 70 | % OF LIFE IF LIVE TO 80 | % OF LIFE IF LIVE TO 90 | % OF LIFE IF LIVE TO 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 728 | 2912 | 25.00% | 19.17% | 20.00% | 20.63% | 21.11% | 21.50% |
| 3 | 1092 | 2912 | 37.50% | 28.75% | 30.00% | 30.94% | 31.67% | 32.25% |
| 4 | 1456 | 2912 | 50.00% | 38.33% | 40.00% | 41.25% | 42.22% | 43.00% |
| 5 | 1820 | 2912 | 62.50% | 47.92% | 50.00% | 51.56% | 52.78% | 53.75% |
| 6 | 2184 | 2912 | 75.00% | 57.50% | 60.00% | 61.88% | 63.33% | 64.50% |
- Using 52 weeks a year
- Discounting for sleep (8 hours) and work/school (8 hours)
Don’t waste your life on a phone. If you are ok wasting yours, at least don’t let your children waste theirs.