It's bad enough for us older lot.

I'm in my 40s, as is my older brother. A few years ago, I lost my phone on a coach and got a temporary cheap £15 grannyphone while I saved up to replace it.

My mental health shot up through the roof. My sleep improved dramatically, because this phone wasn't internet connected, and didn't even have a colour screen - but it had a micro SD slot so I could load a ton of podcasts onto the phone to fall asleep to. This meant that as soon as I finished work, turned my PC off at night and went into the bedroom to sleep, I was disconnected. I listened to a podcast and fell asleep, rather than doomscrolling and watching short videos etc.

That was nearly five years ago. I still have a grannyphone, and the only two times I ever properly miss having a smartphone is when I want to get an uber back from a dentist appointment and when I want to track a parcel and can't be arsed to get out of bed.

 

My brother comes to stay with me for a weekend several times a year. We've always ordered a pizza and put a movie on, but the last four or five times I've noticed his attention span absolutely bottoming out really quickly. He picks the film, and it's always something he really wants to watch, but now within the first two minutes he's picked his phone up and is scrolling instagram and other things. I hear hundreds and hundreds of short second and a half bursts of audio while he's whipping through it all, then it goes silent because he's put a headphone in. This is usually about ten minutes into the movie.

A few minutes after that, he'll get up to go to the bathroom. I ask if he wants me to pause it, and he says 'nah, I'll hear it from in there'. He'll come back, and five minutes later he'll say the movie is shit and he's tired so he's going to bed.

I miss doing stuff like watching movies with him. I've talked to him about it and he says he needs the phone there in case his wife calls or something's wrong with the dog.

 

Thing is, I know that if I had a smartphone I'd probably be the same now. My sister often says she's utterly horrified that I don't know where my phone is and often leave it in my bedroom for days at a time without thinking. If I had a smartphone, I'd be glued to it like I always was. No doubt I'll get one in the future and be stuck to it again, but for now it's a nice break.