Stop Blaming Your Smartphone

People either love them or hate them.

The lovers consider smartphones to be a great connector. The haters consider them to be a brain-rotting distraction from meaningful work.

They are neither.

We are distracted by phones because we are easily distracted. Important work that the world desperately needs benefits from the world being more connected – including the millions who previously would never have been able to afford to connect with the world. The goal is not to hide from phones, but to learn how to control yourself, embracing the good.

We blame phones and their location tracking abilities because we have bad leaders. The ability to anticipate movements and personalize experiences for the benefit of those we serve is massively powerful, when in the right hands. It’s not the phone that is to blame, but the companies who misuse the power, and the governing bodies that refuse to govern it.

In so many areas of our industries and the world, we misallocate blame. Smartphones are today’s scapegoat, just like the TV was before it.

How would our meaningful work benefit if we looked beyond the scapegoats and improved ourselves and influenced change, instead of wasting time blaming our smartphones for things?