Ready for a mind-blowing statistic? In 2013, nearly 2 billion (yes billion with a b!) mobile phones were sold. More than half of them were “smartphones”. Like many people, I’m addicted to my smartphone. As we rang in the New Year, and the media talked about resolutions, I heard quite a bit of talk about “smartphone diets”.
When it comes to diets, I’ve tried them all, so of course, I had to know more. Some experts insist that smartphones can help you lose weight: there are calorie trackers and step counters and apps that can help you train for a 5K. There’s even an app that monitors how quickly you move your fork from your plate to your mouth, forcing you to slow down as you chew. Seriously–no forking joke!
But, the “diet” the experts were talking about had nothing to do with shedding pounds. It was about spending less time with our cell phones. Take for example, the pointers offered by Terri Trespicio, who made the painstaking decision to leave her cell phone behind when she….drumroll…went for a massage!
Creating “no cell phone” zones in my house, leaving the cell phone behind, or shutting it off during dinner sound like more resolutions I won’t be able to keep. Like any diet, the concept is enticing. But my reality doesn’t look like a turning off a cell phone during a deep tissue massage; it looks more like this:
Why I can't go on a smart phone diet!
