Smartphones, most of us have them, sleep with them, eat with them - they've become our fifth limb.
They connect us to the world, our friends and family in far flung places. We can instantly check out a restaurant's reviews before sitting down for an expensive meals. And planning and paper maps be gone, because nowadays, Google Maps tell us exactly where we need to go.
But we're also "always on." We're always available. We can't watch a movie without checking what other films the lead actors were in on IMDB. We can't wait for our coffee order without scrolling through Instagram, checking our email or opening up WhatsApp for the fifth time in the last 30 seconds.
In this episode of Grapple we talk to researcher and TedX speaker Mary McGill, who gave up her smartphone, not for a week, but for good.
We talk about distraction and concentration, the importance of leaving the brain idle so it can rest and come back more creative.
We talk about the ranking system and emotional pull of social media.
And we talk about how precious our time is, even though we often find ourselves lost in a digital fog of comparison and mindless distraction.