Bo Lundberg

In 1976, Steve Jobs dreamed of a “computer for the rest of us”. Forty years later, his dream has been realised, and more than a third of the world’s population now uses a smartphone. But the success of these devices has also brought unintended consequences, including concerns around addiction and overuse.

Many people say “this is a Facebook problem.” Yes, some app providers that rely on advertising or in-app purchases are incentivised to distract us and take advantage of the fact that we now have these always-on devices with us.


I strongly believe this is not just a “Facebook problem” or just a “kids’ issue”. All of us, adults and children, have had our lives transformed in the decade since the iPhone was unveiled. Now we have always-connected email, messaging, shopping, banking and so on, in addition to social, gaming and entertainment apps. Many of these seem benign, but we use them more than we know.

There is no consensus on what constitutes healthy device usage. We need more data so that we can establish useful recommendations.

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Take healthy eating as an analogy: we have advice from scientists and nutritionists on how much protein and carbohydrate we should include in our diet; we have standardised scales to measure our weight against; and we have norms for how much we should exercise.

But when it comes to digital “nourishment”, we don’t know what a “vegetable”, a “protein” or a “fat” is. What is “overweight” or “underweight”? What does a healthy, moderate digital life look like? I think that manufacturers and app developers need to take on this responsibility, before government regulators decide to step in – as with nutritional labelling. Interestingly, we already have digital-detox clinics in the US. I have friends who have sent their children to them. But we need basic tools to help us before it comes to that.


I believe that for Apple to maintain and even grow its customer base it can solve this problem at the platform level, by empowering users to understand more about how they use their devices. To do this, it should let people track their digital activity in detail and across all devices.

Curbing your data addiction will help you make better decisions Data Curbing your data addiction will help you make better decisions

You should be able to see exactly how you spend your time and, if you wish, moderate your behaviour accordingly. We need a “scale” for our digital weight, like we have for our physical weight. Our digital consumption data could look like a calendar with our historical activity. It should be itemised like a credit-card bill, so people can easily see how much time they spend each day on email, for example, or scrolling through posts. Imagine it’s like a health app which tracks metrics such as step count, heart rate and sleep quality.

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With this usage information, people could then set their own targets – like they might have a goal for steps to walk each day. Apple could also let users set their device to a “listen-only” or “read-only” mode, without having to crawl through a settings menu, so that you can enjoy reading an e-book without a constant buzz of notifications.

Apple is particularly well-placed to tackle this problem, with system-level control across devices. With access to this information, I think many of us would be astonished at what we found and would probably choose to change our behaviour. I already do this with my family – we try things like “tech-free Sundays”, no devices at meals, and a parental control product called Circle.

Designing and building a tool like this won’t be difficult: the pieces are already in place, and it would be far easier and cheaper than building a self-driving car. Unlike that of many tech companies, Apple’s business model revolves around people buying more devices, not necessarily spending more time on them. I believe Apple will sell more devices if it makes this kind of digital activity tracking available, as people will feel more comfortable buying them for themselves and their children if they have that extra control. If Apple does the right thing, the industry will follow.

As told to WIRED senior editor Victoria Turk


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