My anxiety mounts as soon as a visual hint appears warning me of the worst—the moment the battery meter flashes ominously red. Now I need to deal with the discomforting patter of my heart, a light sweat forming on my brow, and most dangerously, a powerful need to look for a charging station; all this while trying to avoid “battery anxiety.” It stems from a modern emotion alongside the pronounced fear of death, public speaking…

Each and every Sunday my family follows the same schedule. Coffee is brewing, the birds are singing, and my New York Times crossword is loaded on my iPad. Simultaneously, my screen time report has arrived and gives me a notification. It was delivered “on time”, like a sadistic stalker. And what do my eyes behold at this ungodly hour? An astounding 5.4 hours, marking a staggering 22% increase from the previous week. “5.4 hours?…” How…

Once again, it occurred to me this morning. I was working on an email to a coworker and my phone suggested what I was going to say next before I even typed a single word. Instead of a single word, it was a complete sentence and surprisingly, the exact one I was thinking about. I was struck stiff, fingers poised above the keyboard, going through what I now refer to as “auto-complete anxiety”: an anxiety…

Last year, my birthday dinner was delayed by half an hour simply because I was trying to upload a picture of my workspace to Instagram. When I stood in the office “setting up” coffee cups and notebooks as props, I couldn’t stop thinking about how my friends were out at a restaurant trying to celebrate me. It was indeed ironic, as would be obvious to anyone else, and I was clearly not saved from this…

It happened yet again this morning. While I was busily scrolling through Facebook and sipping on coffee, the app rather cheerfully reminded me that I might want to revisit my “memories”. Against all odds, and with far more cautionary signs than I’d like to admit, I clicked on the notification. In face palm worthy form, it showed me a status update from my Facebook account where, twelve years ago, I furiously ranted how my smartphone…

I’m standing in someone’s living room and my coat is barely off and I begin to feel it: The twitch of my fingers, the muscle instinct that goes into action at the beggining of any setting. Without even accepting the offered drink, I get the urge to ask: “What’s your Wi-Fi password?”. The passwords spill out of my mouth autonomously, words one might use It can quite literally be interpreted as: Testing out phrases a…

Every once in a while I imagine myself as a peculiar individual from an endangered species: Homo sapiens netflixus absentis. Yes, I am that rare species who does not possess a Netflix account. Not because I am furious with streaming services, though I do hold several subscriptions which makes me a bit of a hypocrite, but simply due to not having the time. This abstention has changed how I perceive the world and how social…

It hit me like a brick wall on a Tuesday night while I was immersed in my phone around 11:30 PM. My wife went to bed a few hours earlier and recommended that I work on my wellness plan instead of staring at my phone for hours on end. I decided to stretch that recommendation and operate under the belief that staring at a phone, even for the purpose of tracking screen time, was borderline…

There’s this pure panic that washes over me the moment I open my laptop after hours and realize that I’ve forgotten to set my status as “Away.” That tiny green dot — the digital interface of an open border — has now divulged my existence to the entire professional world. The messages come pouring in: “Hi, I have a quick question…”, “Since you’re online…”, “Do you have a minute?” At this point, no I don’t…

As I was drafting this sentence, my phone buzzed. With no thought processes kicking in, my hand reached out to grab it. My mind had already started racing with questions: is it critical?, who is it from?, will it be rewarding? Even before looking at the screen, I could start to sense that small surge of excitement. It was a notification about my food delivery driver approaching the location. Not exactly earth-shattering notifications. Yet, I…