What we could have done in 25 years... instead of scrolling

According to a 2025 study by Fluid Focus in the UK and Ireland, with an average of 5 hours and 30 minutes of daily use, each of us would spend nearly 25 waking years of our lives on our smartphones...  

25 waking years on a smartphone is almost as much time as we spend sleeping during our lifetime (if we live to 80). However, sleep is essential for good health... Yet, for excessive screen use, studies tend to show the opposite. And a quarter of a century is still a lot. Of course, this time scrolling on our screens is not always useless, as we also work and sometimes even learn with our phones. But let's be honest, there are still many hours that are only used to watch shorts, read comments, send funny or not-so-funny videos... In short, a lot of time for ultimately... not much. So, at The Phone, we did a little calculation: what could we have done with those 25 years if they hadn't been swallowed up by the infinite scrolling of our screens?  

Obtain... several doctorates 

If we consider that a doctorate represents approximately 6 to 8 years of sustained work, in 25 years, it would have been possible to complete 3 or 4 of them, in completely different fields such as neuroscience, economics, or astrophysics... Some will object that scientific subjects are not their strength, and we would therefore reply that instead of becoming an expert in quantum mechanics, they could have read about 12,000 books. And thus transform into a living encyclopedia, capable of becoming the super winner of "Questions pour un champion" or the undefeated maestro of "12 coups de midi"... Or, at the very least, a person who doesn't just read Instagram captions and TikTok... 

Learn 8 languages 

Hate reading? Well, in 25 years, you could have learned up to 8 languages fluently and conversed easily with your Japanese, Arabic, Italian, Icelandic, or even Chinese friends. What's that, you don't have many friends, let alone ones who don't speak Molière's language? In that case, you would also have had time to prepare for and run the equivalent of 200 marathons...  

Become a concert performer 

But we already hear the detractors of running, because yes, running is not always very fun or stimulating (and it can also damage your knees...), whereas playing music is! Well, the good news now is that considering mastering an instrument to a professional level takes about 10,000 hours, in 25 "recovered" years, you could have become a violinist, pianist, drummer, or even all three. But we already see you coming... apart from 80s hits, music and you don't really get along... Well then, know that in a quarter of a century, you could have also become a Zen master and even reached a level worthy of a retreat center in Nepal... 

More seriously...  

Obviously, these little calculations are just a game, an indirect way of raising awareness to help us understand that smartphones should also be consumed in moderation, or even abolished for the youngest and most vulnerable audiences. Because behind the irony, there are much less trivial facts, numerous studies that point to the fact that excessive smartphone use, hyper-connectivity, and social networks harm academic performance and undermine the mental health of young people. Not to mention cyberbullying... And all of this creates anxiety, isolation, and constant social pressure...