9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So a few years ago I heard[br]and interesting rumor. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Apparently, the head[br]of a large pet food company 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 would into the annual shareholder's[br]meeting with can of dog food, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he would eat the can of dog food, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and this was his way of convincing them[br]that if it was good enough for him, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it was good enough for their pets. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This strategy is now known as dogfooding, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it's a common strategy[br]in the business world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It doesn't mean everyone[br]goes in and eats dog food, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but business people[br]will use their own products 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to demonstrate that they feel -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that they're confident in them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a widespread practice, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but I think what's really interesting[br]is when you find exceptions to this rule. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When you find cases of businesses[br]or people in businesses 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who don't use their own products. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Turns out there's one industry where[br]this happens in a common way -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a pretty regular way -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that is the screen-based[br]tech industry. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, in 2010, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Steve Jobs, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when he was releasing the iPad, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 described the iPad as a device[br]that was "extraordinary." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "The best browsing experience[br]you've ever had; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 way better than a laptop, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 way better than a smartphone ... 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's an incredible experience." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A couple of months later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 he was approached by a journalist[br]from The New York Times, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they had a long phone call. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And at the end of the call, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the journalist threw in a question[br]that seemed like a sort of softball. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He said to him, "Your kids[br]must love the iPad." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And there's an obvious answer to this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but what Jobs said really[br]staggered the journalist. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He was very surpsrised, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because he said, "They haven't used it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We limit how much technology[br]our kids use at home." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a very common thing[br]in the tech world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In fact there's a school[br]quite near Silicon Valley 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 called the Waldorf School[br]of the Penninsula, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they don't introduce screens[br]until the eighth grade. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What's really interested about the school 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that 75 percent[br]of the kids who go there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have parents who are high-level[br]Silicon Valley tech execs. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when I heard about this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I thought it was interesting[br]and surprising, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it pushed me to consider[br]what screens were doing to me 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and to my family and the people I loved, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and to people at large. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So for the last five years, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as a professor of business and psychology, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've been studying the effect[br]of screens on our lives. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I want to start by just focusing[br]on how much time they take from us, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then we can talk about[br]what that time looks like. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what I'm showing you here[br]is the average 24-hour workday 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at three different points in history: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 2007 -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 10 years ago -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 2015, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then data that I collected[br]actually only last week. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And a lot of things haven't[br]changed all that much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we sleep roughly seven-and-a-half[br]to eight hours a day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 some people say that's declined slightly, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it hasn't changed much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We work eight-and-a-half[br]to nine hours a day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We engage in survival activities, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these include eating and bathing[br]and looking after kids, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about three hours a day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that leaves this white space. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's our personal time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That space is incredibly important to us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's the space where we do things[br]that makes us individuals. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's where hobbies happen, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we have close relationships, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we really think about our lives, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we get creative, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we zoom back and try to work out[br]whether our lives have been meaningful. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And of course we get some[br]of that from work as well, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but when people look back on their lives 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they wonder what their[br]lives have been like 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at the end of their lives, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you look at the last things they say -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they are talking about those moments[br]that happen in that white personal space. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's sacred; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's important to us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now what I'm going to do is show you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 how much of that space[br]is taken up by screens across time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In 2007, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That was the year Apple[br]introduced the first iPhone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Eight years later, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, this much. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's how much time we spend[br]of our free time in front of our screens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This yellow area, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this thing sliver, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is where the magic happens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's where your humanity lives. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And right now, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's in a very small box. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what do we do about this? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, the first question is, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what does that red space look like? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Of course screens are miraculous[br]in a lot of ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I live in New York, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a lot of my family lives in Australia, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I have a one-year-old son. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The way I've been able to introduce[br]him to them is with screens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I couldn't have done that 15[br]or 20 years ago in quite the same way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So there's a lot of good[br]that comes from them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One thing you can do is[br]you can ask yourself, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what goes on during that time? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How enriching are the apps[br]that we're using? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And some are enriching. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you stop people while[br]they're using them and say, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Tell us how do you feel right now," 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they say the feel pretty good[br]about these apps. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Those that focus on relaxation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 exercise, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 weather, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 reading, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 education and health. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They spend an average of nine[br]minutes a day on these. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These apps make them much less happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 About half the people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when you interrupt them[br]and say, "How do you feel?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 say they don't feel good about using them. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now what's interesting about these -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 dating, social networking, gaming,[br]entertainment, news, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 web browsing -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 people spend 27 minutes a day[br]on each of these. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We're spending three times longer[br]on the apps that don't make us happy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That doesn't seem very wise. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One of the reasons we spend so much[br]time on these apps that make us unhappy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that they rob us of stopping cues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Stopping cues were everywhere[br]in the 20th century. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They were baked into everything we did. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A stopping cue is basically a signal[br]that it's time to move on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to do something new, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to do something different. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Think about newspapers, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 eventually you get to the end, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you fold the newspaper away, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you put it aside. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The same with magazines, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 books, you get to the end of a chapter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 prompts you to consider whether[br]you want to continue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You watched a show on TV, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 eventually the show would end 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you'd have a week[br]until the next one came. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So there were stopping cues everywhere. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the way we consume media today[br]is such that there are no stopping cues. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The newsfeed just rolls on, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and everything's bottomless. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Twitter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Facebook, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Instagram, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 email, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 text messaging, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the news. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when you do check all sorts[br]of other sources, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can just keep going, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on and on and on. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So we can get a cue about what to do[br]from Western Europe, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where they seem to have a number[br]of pretty good ideas in the workplace. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here's one example. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a Dutch design firm. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And what they've done is they've[br]rigged the desks to the celing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At 6pm everyday, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it doesn't matter who you're emailing[br]or what you're doing, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the desks rise to the ceiling. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Four days a week the space[br]turns into a yoga studio. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 One day a week, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into a dance club. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's really up to you which ones[br]you stick around for. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But this is a great stopping rule, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because it means at the end of the day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 everything stops. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's no way to work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At Daimler, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the German car company, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they've got another great strategy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When you go on vacation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 instead of saying, "This[br]person's on vacation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they'll get back to you eventually," 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they say, "This person's on vacation,[br]so we've deleted your email." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This person will never see[br]the email you just sent. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You can email back in a couple of weeks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or you can email someone else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Laughter) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You can imagine what that's like. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You go on vacation and you're[br]actually on vacation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The people who work[br]at this company feel 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that they actually get a break from work. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But of course that doesn't tell us much 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about what we should do at home[br]in our own lives, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and so I want to make some suggestions. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's easy to say between say,[br]five and six pm 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'm going to not use my phone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The problem is five and six pm[br]looks different on different days. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think a far better strategy is to say, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I do certain things every day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are certain occasions[br]that happen every day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like eating dinner. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sometimes I'll be alone, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes with other people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes in a restaurant, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes at home, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but the rule that I've adopted is[br]I will never use my phone at the table. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's far away. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 As a far a way as possible. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Because we're really bad[br]at resisting temptation, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but when you have a stopping cue 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that every time dinner begins, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 my phone goes far away, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you avoid temptation all together. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 At first it hurts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I had massive FOMO. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I struggled. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But what happens is you get used to it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You overcome the withdrawl the same[br]way you would from a drug, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and what happens is life[br]becomes more colorful, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 richer, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more interesting -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you have better conversations. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You really connect with the people[br]who are there with you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think it's a fantastic strategy, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we know it works, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because when people do this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I've tracked a whole lot of people[br]who have tried this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it expands. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They feels so good about it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that they start doing it for the first[br]hour of the day in the morning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They start putting their phones[br]on airplane mode on the weekend. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That way your phone remains a camera, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but it's no longer a phone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's a really poweful idea, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we know people feel much better[br]about their lives when they do this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what's the take-home here? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Screens are miraculous. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I've already said that, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I feel that it's true. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the way we use them is a lot like[br]driving down a really fast, long road, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you're in a car where the accelerator[br]is mashed to the floor, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's kind of hard[br]to reach the brake pedal. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You've got a choice. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You can either glide by, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 past the beautiful ocean scenes[br]and take snaps out the window -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and that's the easy thing to do -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or you can go out of your way[br]to move the car to the side of the road 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to push that brake pedal, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to get out, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 take off your shoes and socks, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 take a couple of steps onto the sand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 feel what the sand feels like[br]under your feet, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 walk to the ocean 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and let the ocean lap at your ankles. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Your life will be richer[br]and more meaningful 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because you breathe in that experience, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and because you've[br]left your phone in the car. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Applause)