Three key facts: Globally over 50% of website traffic comes from smartphones. More Kiwis now have a smartphone, 83%, than a laptop/PC, 73%, or working TV, 69%. In New Zealand, 63% of Kiwis spend between two to four hours online each day; personal use that’s spent mostly on social media (48%) and streaming platforms (39%), and SMS use is at an all-time low.
OPINION Are we all addicted to apps? Are they making us feel fried? Can we be more present in real life? Overwhelmed by everything on the internet, Emma Gleason turned to a burner phone (and desktop browser) for seven days to see if it could alleviate these feelings, help create boundaries amidst the content churn, and reconnect with the “real world”. Did it work? Accessing the internet has never been easier, or more addictive, with smartphones serving our every need. I thought breaking the habit would be torture, but instead, it brought a sense of mental clarity, focus and calm that I haven’t experienced in years.
Tasked with using a burner phone (a cheap, discardable mobile devoid of apps and personal data) for a week, I was testing a hypothesis that slowing down our consumption of online content could tackle the sense of overwhelm many of us are feeling in 2024. Why switch off the smartphone? It’s 2024, we use the internet a lot, increasingly on smartphones , and much, if not most, of our online activity happens on apps. Compared to some I never thought my digital diet was that bad, but it’s been enough to ma.
