Yahoo Finance How healthy is your attachment to mobile devices?
Think of that time when you visited with a friend and he or she constantly checked e-mail or surfed the Internet, and just how irritating that was. Do you think they were really present? The answer is probably a good way to gauge the health of a person's obsession with mobile devices.
Turns out 67 per cent of people globally have a hard time turning off their mobile or smartphones, according to a recent Ipsos survey. Anecdotally you see it everywhere. On city streets, in restaurants, in the park, at the gym, there's rare a moment you don't see someone scrolling or tapping away furiously on their mobile device.
No research paper is needed to confirm the obvious devotion people have to their gadgets. Still, those papers exist and some conclude mobile devices are an increasing threat to achieving work-life balance, a notion in itself that continues to be debated. But more on that later.
The Ipsos survey shows while that 67 per cent may not always be talking on the phone or whatnot, they want to be ready in case they get a call or need to make one. Only 12 per cent of people say their phones are off a lot of the time and 21 per cent say they're off some of the time.
"It's this obsession of not missing out; this constant always being connected; the default setting is always on," says Janis Gilman, global marketing director at Ipsos.
"We're so distracted. Our minds and our thoughts are everywhere. This is the way it is. This is the new world."
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, a comScore analysis earlier this year showed that Canadians continued to surf the Internet more than many jurisdictions globally, and smartphone usage is on the rise. Being connected allows us to be everywhere, all the time.
So the question should be how much is too much. On the work front, it's essential to recover from your work day in order to prevent burnout, but it's pretty hard to do that when you're constantly checking your phone.
To recover fully you need both physical and mental detachment, says Julie McCarthy, associate management professor at the University of Toronto and the Rotman School of Management.
This is hard, if not impossible, to achieve when you are multitasking between home and work life and are completing work e-mails and texts during off-work time. Translation: don't work when you're on the treadmill.
"It's a double-edged sword," she adds of the pros and cons of being connected 24/7.
Yet no one is saying don't work hard, don't be ambitious or live a soft life. But if your mobile device is contributing to a work-life scenario that makes you feel exhausted and generally an unhappy human being maybe it's time to create some boundaries. Work hard, but set limits.
The next time you're visiting with a friend at breakfast, lunch or dinner try to postpone that e-mail or Facebook scan. Could make for a more meaningful catch-up.
