How much has the smartphone taken over our lives?

Does anyone remember a time when the humble mobile phone (which was definitely not a smartphone!) had just two functions – calling and texting? What about a time before everyone had mobile phones and they only way to reach someone was by landline.

With the flooding of smartphones into the market (and the fact that everyone seems to have one!) has it changed the way we live our lives?

I made a throwaway comment to a friend last week – “My phone has become my second office”. It seems innocent enough until I realised that I would be more stressed about losing my phone than my wallet.

Sure my phone still does the simple things like call and text, but now it does so much more. I can email, update my various social media platforms, listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet and take photos. Like a lot of people, I have become reliant so much on my smartphone to organise my work and social life (if it’s not in the calendar it doesn’t happen!)

I love the fact that I can run my business from my phone, but does that become a device that runs much more than that? We talk a lot about being free to work from anywhere, including our favourite coffee shop, but are we truly able to switch off from our work?

With all of the extra functionality on the modern mobile phone, unless I turn it on silent, I find that it goes off more often every time I get an email or a text message or an update on social media. And unlike a computer that you can turn off and put away, your phone is always on.

How addicted are you to your smartphone? Do you have an boundaries in place for when and how you use it?