Our Generation's Cigarettes
Summary
Our phones (and social media) are doing to us what cigarettes did to the last generation. They’re addictive and we need to use them less:
Phones and social media damage your sleep, focus and relationships, for adults just as much as children
Countries are starting to ban social media for under-sixteens, and daily active users are beginning to drop
The average adult spends over a month per year on their phone - and most of us are in denial about it
The fix isn't banning something negative, it's replacing it with something real: records, sticker albums, margarita stands
Keep Reading
The Supper Club
There were twelve of us crammed into a living room, our host cooking for us all from a small kitchen. Across the table from us were a dad and his 15 year old son. The Dad was lively, chatting to all of us, the son looked bored, leaning with his head against the wall who was staring out of the window. Liv leaned over to see what he was looking at - a cat running along a low brick wall.
That was the curious thing about the boy, he was 15, sat with a group of adults and, despite his obvious boredom, not once did he go on a mobile phone.
Our generation’s cigarettes
Who wouldn’t want to take up smoking when the guy looks so cool in these adverts from the 1970s?
On the drive home I felt refreshed, not just from the food, but from how impressed I was with this 15 year old who switched from boredom to engagement and back again. As we drove, I reflected on how rare it is that you see a teenager sitting at a table without being absorbed in their device.
The antithesis to this Gen-A’er is the defining bad habit of our generation. Like smoking was before, being glued to our devices is a real curse that we need to get off our backs. And just like smoking was, we are too slow to remove these small devices from our lives.
But things are changing and I am thrilled that countries all over the world - Australia first, followed by a host of European and Asian countries - are implementing bans for under sixteens for all social media applications.
Screentime confessions
So we’re fixing the kids, but the problem is that us adults are also on our phones far too much. We have become adept at saying, “yep, kids are on their phones too much and they shouldn’t be because it causes them harm.” However, I think this is missing the point:
Phones and social media are also bad for adults.
How could they not be? I won’t go into the details here (see the footnotes for some recommended readings), but they massively impact how you sleep, focus and how lonely you are.
How many times have you been sat across from someone and they’re more interested in looking at a photo of a distant friend in Portugal than they are in what you have to say?
I imagine your second point might be, “sure, I get it, phones are bad for adults, but I’m not on it very much.” This is a timeless excuse, one which was used for cigarettes for decades.
I would say I have pretty good phone habits, but my iPhone says otherwise - I was on my phone for an average of three hours per day last week. I could give you a litany of excuses for it - work, contacting people, taking photos, using Google Maps - but the sad truth is that my phone is open for almost one full day every week.
A full day! I spend over a month on my phone per year. Honestly, it sickens me to think about it.
Well done Australia
The good news is that things seem to be changing. Often positive change starts with kids, and I think they will pave the way for us to live a device-light(er)-life. We did it with smoking, why can’t we do it with this?
The data backs it up, Instagram saw its first ever decline in daily active users in 2026.
As the wealth of knowledge grows as to just how bad social media is, people are switching it off. Five years ago it was rare to meet someone who didn’t have social media, now we all have friends who’ve put it in the bin.
So, in the spirit of trying to spend less time on our phones - I’ve compiled a short list of things that people are doing instead of using their phones, because I think it is a lot healthier in the long run to add something positive to your life than to ban something negative:
#1 Go old school and listen to records like Jamie
“What have you got there?” I asked Jamie as we walked into his flat in east London.
“Oh, Georgia bought me a record player for my birthday, and my brother has just got me a Jungle record.” He was buzzing with excitement as he turned on the record player, took the shiny black disc out of its sleeve, popped it on the turn table, found the needle and let it play.
Spotify isn’t bad for you. But (and it is a big but), everytime you pick up your phone to look at Spotify, you see the shiny purple of Instagram, the banana yellow of Snapchat, and before you know if you’re looking at cat videos.
The upside though is tremendous. Ask anyone who has bought a record player and they will tell you that it’s an almost ritualistic, meditative experience to go to a store, search for a record, take it out of the sleeve, pop it on the turn table, find the needle, sit back and listen to the whole album.
#2 Do something that uses your hands
If you had walked into my in-laws house last night at 8.30pm, you would’ve been met with a very strange scene. Two grown men (one of us in his 30s, the other in his 60s) absolutely engrossed in our Panini World Cup 2026 sticker albums. Yes, we collectively spent about £80 buying bits of sticky paper with other grown men, wearing football kits, to stick into a little book.
Forget TikTok trends, “hot” songs and influencer recommendations, get sucked up into something real that uses your hands - the World Cup is on and what better way to release your inner child than to start a football sticker collection.
What do you end up with? A half complete sticker book that is worthless, yes, but you’ve also spent hours doing something quietly, chatting to a friend about it, tearing open packets, sifting through the players, trading stickers - all without being on your phone!
#3 Start a margarita stand like James
“Why the hell have you started El Camino?” I asked my friend James.
“Well, I was pretty chilled at work and I heard an ice cream van coming down the street. It made me think, ‘how can I replicate that feeling of running for an ice cream, but for adults?’ So I decided to sell margaritas in my neighbourhood!”
Since he started a few weeks ago, James has sold margaritas at kids football matches (to the parents), for dinner parties and to many more on a Friday after work. He told me that since he started he has swapped his evening Instagram scrolling for brand design and product creation - he even made me a Camin-0% last week.
We can do it (we have to)
If we don’t all make an effort to use our phones (and especially social media) less, we are heading for trouble. You might not buy a record player, football stickers or start a margarita business, but I know you already have ideas of what you could do instead (start a supper club, raw dog a flight, buy a real camera).
These devices are engineered to pray on our worst human tendencies, we shouldn’t blame ourselves for using them so much, but we should take responsibility for what comes next. In the bottom of the article I have left some recommended readings, check them out, I am quite sure you’ll be shocked at just how bad smoking phones are for us.
You can always rely on the kids
As Liv and I arrived home and pulled down the driveway she said to me, “isn’t it crazy what that kid said?”
“Yep, but it’s great isn’t it!”
Half way through dinner Chris turned to this 15 year old and said, “what do you think about social media?”
He looked at his Dad, turned back to Chris and said, “I don’t know, I don’t have it and I don’t want it.”
Deepen Your Curiosity
Read about the UK’s ban here.
Jonathan Haidt is a renowned psychologist and has studied the affects of social media and phone use on young people - I highly recommend his book, The Anxious Generation.
Instagram’s own research on the harms of social media were buried. Subsequently researchers have found that the safeguarding Instagram has is not strong enough to prevent suicide content from reaching teens.
El-Camino margarita was started by James, get yourself a delivery through Instagram @elcamino_london
Room For More Supper Club is run by Fatima, find her on Instagram @room.for.more_
The irony is not lost on me that I am both advocating a reduction in social media, whilst recommending to find someone on Instagram - who said it was easy?
