If you spend 1 hour a day on your smartphone for 20 years, is it equivalent to the time needed to pass the University of Tokyo Medical School entrance exam? The 100 million idiots of the Reiwa era (Smartphone edition)

When television first appeared,
it was said that it would turn the 100 million people into idiots.
In other words, everyone would become stupid from watching TV.
My mother used to tell me that often, too.
If you watch TV from the morning, you'll become stupid!

However, now my mother watches TV all day long starting from the morning.

To conclude, TV was actually quite harmless.
How about now?
I feel that with smartphones, this time we really are becoming a nation of 100 million idiots.

YouTube, X, LINE...
Friends, friends' parents, seniors at work, everyone says,
I get my information from YouTube.

If you conservatively use your smartphone for 1 hour a day, how much time does that add up to? I asked an AI...

If you continue to use your smartphone for 1 hour a day for 20 years, the number of days spent on it can be calculated as follows:

⸻

🔢 Calculation
• 1 hour × 365 days × 20 years = 7,300 hours
• Dividing this by 24 hours (1 day)...

7,300 ÷ 24 ≒ 304.17 days

⸻

✅ Conclusion

You are spending approximately 304 days on your smartphone.
In other words, it is the same amount of time as staring at your smartphone for 10 full months without sleeping.

7,300 hours!
I asked what could be accomplished with that much time.

Labor and Social Security Attorney
1,000–1,200 hours
About 6 times

Small and Medium Enterprise Management Consultant
1,000–1,500 hours
About 5 times

Administrative Scrivener
600–1,000 hours
About 7 times

Certified Public Accountant
3,000–5,000 hours
About 1.5–2 times
Lawyer (via preliminary bar exam)
6,000–8,000 hours
≒ 1 time
Certified Public Tax Accountant (per subject)
500–1,000 hours
Enough for 5–10 subject passes

TOEIC 800 points
About 500–700 hours
Achievable 10 times
TOEIC 990 perfect score
About 1,000–1,500 hours
Achievable about 5 times
Eiken Grade 1
About 1,500–2,500 hours
Achievable 3 times
IELTS 7.5 or higher
About 2,000–3,000 hours
Fully achievable

To pass the University of Tokyo Medical School (Science III),
the total study time spent between the 1st and 3rd year of high school
is said to be about 6,000–10,000 hours.
• 5–6 hours a day × 3 years: about 6,000 hours
• Intense study of over 10 hours a day during exam periods: cumulative total of over 7,000–10,000 hours

In other words, if you use your smartphone for 1 hour a day for 20 years,
it is equivalent to passing the University of Tokyo Medical School or the bar exam.
For those who watch their smartphone for 2 hours a day,
it's the University of Tokyo Medical School plus the bar exam.
If you watch your smartphone for 3 hours a day,
you could probably manage the University of Tokyo Medical School, the bar exam, and a perfect TOEIC score.

Having said that, I have lived most of my life in an era without smartphones, so maybe it wouldn't make much of a difference even if I had one, haha.

It certainly gives one food for thought.