Time stolen by smartphones. Are we really being "robbed" in the first place?

*This article was written and verified by me, and AI was used only for the final proofreading and checking for typos.

Hello, this is Hamuocchi.

I love gadgets.
No, to be precise,
I think I am on the side of people who are quite obsessed with them.

Among them,
the smartphone is something that is always at the center of my daily life.

Recently, I have been enjoying touching various smartphones.
Not only iPhones, but I also touch Pixels.
To be honest, I am also quite curious about GALAXY.

Each one has its own merits, and just touching them is fun.
When I face my smartphone like that every day, I always feel something.

Anyway, time just melts away.

It's not just for serious smartphone reviews.

I pick it up casually and open social media.
I only intended to do it for a little while, but before I knew it, an hour, no, about two hours had passed easily.

I am sure I am not the only one who has this feeling.
Many people must be having similar experiences.

And then, I think this afterwards.
"I wasted my time again."

This feeling is accompanied by some kind of guilt.
Even though it should have been fun, for some reason, a sense of guilt remains.

This time, I will write about such things.

Is the smartphone a time-stealing machine?

I spend useless time looking at my smartphone.
I want to stop and think about this for a moment.

Is the time that is being consumed really "useless time"?

A phrase I often see recently is "having one's time stolen by a smartphone."

I myself strongly empathized with this phrase when I saw it.
I thought it was exactly right,
and it matched my own experience.

However, at one point, I suddenly felt a sense of discomfort.

Are we really being "robbed"?

We should have the right to choose, after all

I will start with the conclusion.
I don't think this is being robbed.

We are choosing it ourselves.

This difference in perception is greater than you might think.

Of course, I do not deny that smartphones and social media are addictive.
In fact, in other countries, their influence is seen as a problem, and there are cases where companies are being held responsible.

It is a fact that mechanisms that strongly affect human psychology are incorporated into them.

However, I also felt a sense of discomfort with that news.

I thought that using that as an excuse was a bit too much like blaming others.

Have we ever seriously thought about how we face our smartphones?
Have we ever designed our own distance from social media?

I feel that skipping that and saying "it was stolen" is a bit wrong.

I don't look at social media, though

Speaking of myself, I have hardly looked at social media to kill time recently.

The reason is very simple: I have things I want to do.

That is updating this note.
Honestly, continuing to write two articles every day is not easy.

It takes time and energy, too.

But it is more interesting than that.

Putting my thoughts into words.
Getting reactions to that.
And the feeling of building up little by little.

These have become a very fun experience for me.
That is why the time I spend looking at social media has naturally decreased.

Isn't that valuable in its own way?

What is important here is
that this is not a story about social media being bad.

Looking at social media when you don't have anything particular you want to do.
I think this is actually a natural flow.

Humans are creatures that try to fill their free time, and social media is far too excellent as a means for that.

It is free, information flows infinitely, and it is reasonably interesting.

If you can enjoy this,
isn't that time valuable in its own way?

The right to choose is yours

So, what is the problem?
I think there is only one problem.

It is that you are not choosing it yourself.

Opening it aimlessly, continuing to look at it aimlessly, and time passing aimlessly.
This state is the problem, not social media itself being bad.

Conversely, if you are choosing it yourself, there is no problem at all.

Deciding that today is a day to enjoy social media and lazing around to your heart's content.
That is also a fine choice, and it is not consumption but "time with intention."

So, you should think of it this way.

Your time is not being stolen by your smartphone.
You are using your time on your smartphone.

The moment this awareness changes, your relationship with your smartphone will change significantly.

Summary

I think this stance is fine.

Using time on a smartphone is not evil.

Rather, if you can enjoy it, there is no entertainment with better cost performance than this.

However, there is one thing you must not forget.

You should choose your actions yourself.

I update twice a day at 6:00 and 17:00.
I would be happy if you read it again.
Thank you always for your likes and follows.