2018 - Digital Detox Time?

Among 18 crazy things that will happen in 2018 according to New York Post is that smartphones will suffer the same fate as cigarettes?

Get ready to hide your phone and immerse in a few tech-free hours (or days). “We’re at an inflection point,” says Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, adding that tech’s addictive grip on our lives will move from the fringes to the center of conversation. Bosses will start banning devices from meetings, as will restaurants during meals, predicts GE Vice Chair Beth Comstock. She calls distraction-free time the “new ultimate luxury.”

Core to a Thrive culture shift is addressing our relationship with technology, which is one of the most pressing issues of our time. We all feel it — we’re addicted. And it’s getting worse. We’re being controlled by something we should be controlling. Our technology — especially in the form of our ever-more-powerful smartphones — allows us to do amazing things. But it also consumes and controls our attention, crippling our ability to focus, think, sleep, meaningfully engage with others, and connect to what’s around us and, especially, what’s inside of us. - Ariana Huffington

Personally I see electronic palm devices, especially the smartphone should be banned in places that smoking is not allowed.

I am a smoker and I've come to term that I should refrain from cigarettes whenever and wherever it is not appropriate.

I keep telling those ogling their smartphones at the dining table to stop it, "If I can refrain from smoking, why can't you?"

I hope 2018 smartphones will come with AI which will auto shut off the device in restaurants, trains and busses.

One can only hope...

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