Human Evolution

These days one of the most important devices you can use to help with your life is a smartphone. There is so much that you can do with a smartphone and so many different ways in which they play a key role in your life.

Although some market reports also suggest that since the release of the smartphone, the human attention span decreased below that of a goldfish.

The Chewbacca test

The Numbers

According to the most recent United Nations report, the current world population is 7.7 billion as of February 2019. The 2018 Global Digital Report, estimates there are now more than 4 billion people around the world using the internet. The number of social media users in 2018 is around 3.2 billion, and the number of mobile phone users in 2018 is 5.1 billion… holy sh*t…

China the most populous country in the world, leads the smartphone industry. The number of smartphone users in China is forecast to almost 675 million in 2019. Around half of the Chinese population is projected to use a smartphone by 2020. The United States is also an important market for the smartphone industry, with around 250 million smartphone users in 2019.

The Smombie Effect

Eyes glued to their phone, head down, and finger flipping through their screen. They’re not under the spell, they’re controlled by their smartphones.

Zombies or Smombies have taken over planet Earth. Smartphones have transformed our society. Paradoxically, this powerful social tool also isolates us. People report staggeringly high rates of device addiction. It’s already an enormous problem, but smartphone addiction is likely to grow even more. In a culture that almost demands being connected to the internet, smartphone addiction is just as difficult to combat as it is to identify

The Wandering Mind

What do we need to change our behaviour? What do we need to do to curb this smartphone addiction? One of the most common questions I receive is: “Where do you get your ideas?” The best answer is that I get ideas during periods of associative thinking, when my mind wander until I get bored, that leads to new and creative ideas.

Not all those who wander are lost.

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Why Boredom Is So Powerful?

Researchers at the University of California, have concluded that it’s not until we’re bored that we tap into our subconscious, and begin to make unusual or unexpected connections.

A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that bored people “are more likely to engage in sensation seeking” — that is, to look for activities or sights that engage their minds and stimulate the brain’s reward center. These people are more prone to “divergent thinking styles” — the ability to come up with creative new ideas.

To produce great creative work, you need to be a little bored.

There’s another big upside to boredom: It encourages us to take action toward a non-boring alternative. Since most of us don’t like feeling bored for too long, the feeling motivates us to seek out new goals and experiences.

So forget your smartphone, take a long walk, stare out the window, stare at people on the street (but not in a creepy way), read a book, do your laundry and simply enjoy the world and its wonders. Turn off that Smombie leech and let your mind roam in the clouds.

Wander often. Wonder always.