Catherine Price

Science journalist Catherine Price explores the effects that our constant connectivity is having on our brains, bodies, relationships, and society at large. Then, she walks readers through what she calls the "break-up" period, helping them to identify their goals and priorities, tidy their apps, prune their email, and take time away. In the end, readers will be more mindful not only of how they use their phones, but also about how they choose to spend the moments of their lives. Print run 12,500.

How to Break Up with Your Phone

Lindy

What's more, far from relieving my anxiety, checking my phone nearly always contributed to it. I'd look at it for a second before bed, notice a stressful email in my inbox, and then lie awake for an hour worrying about something that could easily have waited until morning.

In other words, learning to read doesn't just enable us to store and retrieve information; it literally changes the way we think. It reorganizes our neural circuitry in a way that encourages creativity, problem solving, and insight. And it increases our ability to sustain attention. In fact, many scholars believe that the development of written language was an integral step toward the development of culture. As Maryanne Wolf writes in her fascinating book about reading, Proust and the Squid, "New thought came more readily to a brain that had already learned how to rearrange itself to read."

The second part of this book includes a 30-day guide on disconnecting with your phone which I found helpful, but also had difficulty following when life got busy. I guess this highlights the cycle of time scarcity and the reliance on phones as an easy escape. 

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