0:00:00.928,0:00:03.915
So, a few years ago I heard[br]an interesting rumor.

0:00:04.389,0:00:06.777
Apparently, the head[br]of a large pet food company

0:00:06.801,0:00:09.056
would go into the annual[br]shareholder's meeting

0:00:09.080,0:00:10.541
with can of dog food.

0:00:10.565,0:00:12.666
And he would eat the can of dog food.

0:00:12.690,0:00:16.243
And this was his way of convincing them[br]that if it was good enough for him,

0:00:16.267,0:00:17.944
it was good enough for their pets.

0:00:17.968,0:00:20.404
This strategy is now known[br]as "dogfooding,"

0:00:20.428,0:00:22.747
and it's a common strategy[br]in the business world.

0:00:22.771,0:00:25.255
It doesn't mean everyone[br]goes in and eats dog food,

0:00:25.279,0:00:27.500
but businesspeople[br]will use their own products

0:00:27.524,0:00:29.061
to demonstrate that they feel --

0:00:29.085,0:00:30.790
that they're confident in them.

0:00:30.814,0:00:32.739
Now, this is a widespread practice,

0:00:32.763,0:00:35.858
but I think what's really interesting[br]is when you find exceptions

0:00:35.882,0:00:37.033
to this rule,

0:00:37.057,0:00:39.764
when you find cases of businesses[br]or people in businesses

0:00:39.788,0:00:41.382
who don't use their own products.

0:00:41.406,0:00:44.527
Turns out there's one industry[br]where this happens in a common way,

0:00:44.551,0:00:45.711
in a pretty regular way,

0:00:45.735,0:00:48.169
and that is the screen-based[br]tech industry.

0:00:48.193,0:00:52.587
So, in 2010, Steve Jobs,[br]when he was releasing the iPad,

0:00:52.611,0:00:56.353
described the iPad as a device[br]that was "extraordinary."

0:00:56.377,0:00:58.917
"The best browsing experience[br]you've ever had;

0:00:58.941,0:01:01.674
way better than a laptop,[br]way better than a smartphone.

0:01:01.698,0:01:03.225
It's an incredible experience."

0:01:03.249,0:01:06.034
A couple of months later,[br]he was approached by a journalist

0:01:06.058,0:01:07.214
from The New York Times,

0:01:07.238,0:01:08.737
and they had a long phone call.

0:01:08.761,0:01:09.931
At the end of the call,

0:01:09.955,0:01:13.345
the journalist threw in a question[br]that seemed like a sort of softball.

0:01:13.369,0:01:15.944
He said to him, "Your kids[br]must love the iPad."

0:01:16.803,0:01:18.432
There's an obvious answer to this,

0:01:18.456,0:01:21.075
but what Jobs said[br]really staggered the journalist.

0:01:21.099,0:01:22.290
He was very surprised,

0:01:22.314,0:01:24.889
because he said, "They haven't used it.

0:01:24.913,0:01:27.835
We limit how much technology[br]our kids use at home."

0:01:27.859,0:01:31.722
This is a very common thing[br]in the tech world.

0:01:31.746,0:01:34.181
In fact, there's a school[br]quite near Silicon Valley

0:01:34.205,0:01:36.478
called the Waldorf School[br]of the Peninsula,

0:01:36.502,0:01:39.666
and they don't introduce screens[br]until the eighth grade.

0:01:39.690,0:01:41.732
What's really interesting about the school

0:01:41.756,0:01:43.805
is that 75 percent[br]of the kids who go there

0:01:43.829,0:01:46.896
have parents who are high-level[br]Silicon Valley tech execs.

0:01:47.342,0:01:50.857
So when I heard about this, I thought[br]it was interesting and surprising,

0:01:50.881,0:01:53.913
and it pushed me to consider[br]what screens were doing to me

0:01:53.937,0:01:55.894
and to my family and the people I loved,

0:01:55.918,0:01:57.180
and to people at large.

0:01:57.204,0:01:59.126
So for the last five years,

0:01:59.150,0:02:01.183
as a professor of business and psychology,

0:02:01.207,0:02:03.911
I've been studying the effect[br]of screens on our lives.

0:02:04.889,0:02:08.971
And I want to start by just focusing[br]on how much time they take from us,

0:02:08.995,0:02:11.501
and then we can talk about[br]what that time looks like.

0:02:11.525,0:02:14.192
What I'm showing you here[br]is the average 24-hour workday

0:02:14.216,0:02:16.554
at three different points in history:

0:02:16.578,0:02:18.580
2007 -- 10 years ago --

0:02:18.604,0:02:20.063
2015

0:02:20.087,0:02:23.105
and then data that I collected,[br]actually, only last week.

0:02:23.129,0:02:24.878
And a lot of things haven't changed

0:02:24.902,0:02:26.053
all that much.

0:02:27.320,0:02:30.095
We sleep roughly seven-and-a-half[br]to eight hours a day;

0:02:30.119,0:02:33.436
some people say that's declined slightly,[br]but it hasn't changed much.

0:02:33.460,0:02:36.714
We work eight-and-a-half[br]to nine hours a day.

0:02:36.738,0:02:38.470
We engage in survival activities --

0:02:38.494,0:02:41.621
these are things like eating[br]and bathing and looking after kids --

0:02:41.645,0:02:42.801
about three hours a day.

0:02:42.825,0:02:44.353
That leaves this white space.

0:02:44.377,0:02:46.044
That's our personal time.

0:02:46.068,0:02:48.856
That space is incredibly important to us.

0:02:49.294,0:02:52.168
That's the space where we do things[br]that make us individuals.

0:02:52.192,0:02:55.293
That's where hobbies happen,[br]where we have close relationships,

0:02:55.317,0:02:58.199
where we really think about our lives,[br]where we get creative,

0:02:58.223,0:03:00.037
where we zoom back and try to work out

0:03:00.061,0:03:01.921
whether our lives have been meaningful.

0:03:01.945,0:03:03.773
We get some of that from work as well,

0:03:03.797,0:03:05.712
but when people look back on their lives

0:03:05.736,0:03:07.740
and wonder what their lives have been like

0:03:07.764,0:03:09.007
at the end of their lives,

0:03:09.031,0:03:10.918
you look at the last things they say --

0:03:10.942,0:03:14.643
they are talking about those moments[br]that happen in that white personal space.

0:03:14.667,0:03:16.670
So it's sacred; it's important to us.

0:03:16.694,0:03:18.545
Now, what I'm going to do is show you

0:03:18.569,0:03:21.821
how much of that space[br]is taken up by screens across time.

0:03:21.845,0:03:23.170
In 2007,

0:03:23.194,0:03:24.345
this much.

0:03:24.369,0:03:27.349
That was the year that Apple[br]introduced the first iPhone.

0:03:27.373,0:03:28.571
Eight years later,

0:03:29.239,0:03:30.460
this much.

0:03:31.318,0:03:33.107
Now, this much.

0:03:33.131,0:03:36.569
That's how much time we spend[br]of that free time in front of our screens.

0:03:36.593,0:03:39.896
This yellow area, this thin sliver,[br]is where the magic happens.

0:03:39.920,0:03:41.502
That's where your humanity lives.

0:03:41.526,0:03:43.558
And right now, it's in a very small box.

0:03:44.243,0:03:45.868
So what do we do about this?

0:03:45.892,0:03:47.249
Well, the first question is:

0:03:47.273,0:03:49.132
What does that red space look like?

0:03:49.156,0:03:51.261
Now, of course, screens are miraculous

0:03:51.285,0:03:52.713
in a lot of ways.

0:03:52.737,0:03:53.994
I live in New York,

0:03:54.018,0:03:56.016
a lot of my family lives in Australia,

0:03:56.040,0:03:57.470
and I have a one-year-old son.

0:03:57.494,0:04:01.392
The way I've been able to introduce[br]them to him is with screens.

0:04:01.416,0:04:03.506
I couldn't have done that[br]15 or 20 years ago

0:04:03.530,0:04:04.688
in quite the same way.

0:04:04.712,0:04:06.869
So there's a lot of good[br]that comes from them.

0:04:06.893,0:04:08.739
One thing you can do is ask yourself:

0:04:08.763,0:04:10.846
What goes on during that time?

0:04:10.870,0:04:13.308
How enriching are the apps[br]that we're using?

0:04:13.332,0:04:14.606
And some are enriching.

0:04:14.630,0:04:17.072
If you stop people while[br]they're using them and say,

0:04:17.096,0:04:18.684
"Tell us how you feel right now,"

0:04:18.708,0:04:21.104
they say they feel pretty good[br]about these apps --

0:04:21.128,0:04:24.488
those that focus on relaxation,[br]exercise, weather, reading,

0:04:24.512,0:04:26.055
education and health.

0:04:26.079,0:04:29.213
They spend an average of nine[br]minutes a day on each of these.

0:04:29.237,0:04:31.567
These apps make them much less happy.

0:04:32.099,0:04:35.703
About half the people, when you interrupt[br]them and say, "How do you feel?"

0:04:35.727,0:04:37.835
say they don't feel good about using them.

0:04:37.859,0:04:39.490
What's interesting about these --

0:04:39.514,0:04:41.224
dating, social networking, gaming,

0:04:41.248,0:04:43.974
entertainment, news, web browsing --

0:04:43.998,0:04:46.604
people spend 27 minutes a day[br]on each of these.

0:04:46.628,0:04:50.180
We're spending three times longer[br]on the apps that don't make us happy.

0:04:50.204,0:04:51.872
That doesn't seem very wise.

0:04:52.886,0:04:55.424
One of the reasons we spend[br]so much time on these apps

0:04:55.448,0:04:56.600
that make us unhappy

0:04:56.624,0:04:58.156
is they rob us of stopping cues.

0:04:58.180,0:05:00.559
Stopping cues were everywhere[br]in the 20th century.

0:05:00.583,0:05:02.447
They were baked into everything we did.

0:05:02.471,0:05:05.887
A stopping cue is basically a signal[br]that it's time to move on,

0:05:05.911,0:05:08.608
to do something new,[br]to do something different.

0:05:08.632,0:05:11.828
And -- think about newspapers;[br]eventually you get to the end,

0:05:11.852,0:05:14.149
you fold the newspaper away,[br]you put it aside.

0:05:14.173,0:05:17.331
The same with magazines, books --[br]you get to the end of a chapter,

0:05:17.355,0:05:20.132
prompts you to consider[br]whether you want to continue.

0:05:20.504,0:05:23.202
You watched a show on TV,[br]eventually the show would end,

0:05:23.226,0:05:25.631
and then you'd have a week[br]until the next one came.

0:05:25.655,0:05:27.409
There were stopping cues everywhere.

0:05:27.433,0:05:31.183
But the way we consume media today[br]is such that there are no stopping cues.

0:05:31.923,0:05:33.498
The news feed just rolls on,

0:05:33.522,0:05:37.195
and everything's bottomless:[br]Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,

0:05:37.219,0:05:40.361
email, text messaging, the news.

0:05:40.385,0:05:43.355
And when you do check[br]all sorts of other sources,

0:05:43.379,0:05:45.720
you can just keep going on and on and on.

0:05:45.744,0:05:50.154
So, we can get a cue about what to do[br]from Western Europe,

0:05:50.178,0:05:53.579
where they seem to have a number[br]of pretty good ideas in the workplace.

0:05:53.603,0:05:56.011
Here's one example.[br]This is a Dutch design firm.

0:05:56.035,0:05:59.421
And what they've done[br]is rigged the desks to the ceiling.

0:05:59.445,0:06:00.597
And at 6pm every day,

0:06:00.621,0:06:03.428
it doesn't matter who you're emailing[br]or what you're doing,

0:06:03.452,0:06:04.929
the desks rise to the ceiling.

0:06:04.953,0:06:06.061
(Laughter)

0:06:06.085,0:06:07.335
(Applause)

0:06:07.359,0:06:11.602
Four days a week, the space[br]turns into a yoga studio,

0:06:11.626,0:06:13.257
one day a week, into a dance club.

0:06:13.281,0:06:15.810
It's really up to you which ones[br]you stick around for.

0:06:15.834,0:06:17.521
But this is a great stopping rule,

0:06:17.545,0:06:19.432
because it means at the end of the day,

0:06:19.456,0:06:21.493
everything stops, there's nowhere to work.

0:06:21.517,0:06:24.961
At Daimler, the German car company,[br]they've got another great strategy.

0:06:24.985,0:06:26.515
When you go on vacation,

0:06:26.539,0:06:28.743
instead of saying,[br]"This person's on vacation,

0:06:28.767,0:06:30.490
they'll get back to you eventually,"

0:06:30.514,0:06:33.736
they say, "This person's on vacation,[br]so we've deleted your email.

0:06:33.760,0:06:36.406
This person will never see[br]the email you just sent."

0:06:36.430,0:06:37.446
(Laughter)

0:06:37.470,0:06:40.111
"You can email back in a couple of weeks,

0:06:40.135,0:06:41.621
or you can email someone else."

0:06:41.645,0:06:42.673
(Laughter)

0:06:42.697,0:06:43.869
And so --

0:06:43.893,0:06:47.535
(Applause)

0:06:48.882,0:06:50.520
You can imagine what that's like.

0:06:50.544,0:06:53.002
You go on vacation,[br]and you're actually on vacation.

0:06:53.026,0:06:54.995
The people who work at this company feel

0:06:55.019,0:06:57.381
that they actually get a break from work.

0:06:57.405,0:06:59.322
But of course, that doesn't tell us much

0:06:59.346,0:07:01.645
about what we should do[br]at home in our own lives,

0:07:01.669,0:07:03.351
so I want to make some suggestions.

0:07:03.375,0:07:07.868
It's easy to say, between 5 and 6pm,[br]I'm going to not use my phone.

0:07:07.892,0:07:11.323
The problem is, 5 and 6pm[br]looks different on different days.

0:07:11.347,0:07:13.534
I think a far better strategy is to say,

0:07:13.558,0:07:15.027
I do certain things every day,

0:07:15.051,0:07:17.405
there are certain occasions[br]that happen every day,

0:07:17.429,0:07:18.688
like eating dinner.

0:07:18.712,0:07:20.030
Sometimes I'll be alone,

0:07:20.054,0:07:21.560
sometimes with other people,

0:07:21.584,0:07:22.863
sometimes in a restaurant,

0:07:22.887,0:07:24.075
sometimes at home,

0:07:24.099,0:07:27.745
but the rule that I've adopted is:[br]I will never use my phone at the table.

0:07:28.123,0:07:29.557
It's far away,

0:07:29.581,0:07:31.042
as far away as possible.

0:07:31.066,0:07:33.375
Because we're really bad[br]at resisting temptation.

0:07:33.399,0:07:36.470
But when you have a stopping cue[br]that, every time dinner begins,

0:07:36.494,0:07:37.650
my phone goes far away,

0:07:37.674,0:07:39.342
you avoid temptation all together.

0:07:39.366,0:07:41.083
At first, it hurts.

0:07:41.107,0:07:42.729
I had massive FOMO.

0:07:42.753,0:07:43.819
(Laughter)

0:07:43.843,0:07:45.009
I struggled.

0:07:45.369,0:07:47.299
But what happens is, you get used to it.

0:07:47.323,0:07:50.421
You overcome the withdrawal[br]the same way you would from a drug,

0:07:50.445,0:07:53.230
and what happens is, life becomes[br]more colorful, richer,

0:07:53.254,0:07:54.409
more interesting --

0:07:54.433,0:07:56.083
you have better conversations.

0:07:56.107,0:07:59.131
You really connect with the people[br]who are there with you.

0:07:59.155,0:08:00.799
I think it's a fantastic strategy,

0:08:00.823,0:08:03.312
and we know it works,[br]because when people do this --

0:08:03.336,0:08:05.926
and I've tracked a lot of people[br]who have tried this --

0:08:05.950,0:08:07.120
it expands.

0:08:07.144,0:08:08.460
They feel so good about it,

0:08:08.484,0:08:11.576
they start doing it for the first[br]hour of the day in the morning.

0:08:11.600,0:08:14.725
They start putting their phones[br]on airplane mode on the weekend.

0:08:14.749,0:08:18.486
That way, your phone remains a camera,[br]but it's no longer a phone.

0:08:18.510,0:08:19.845
It's a really powerful idea,

0:08:19.869,0:08:23.498
and we know people feel much better[br]about their lives when they do this.

0:08:23.973,0:08:25.562
So what's the take home here?

0:08:25.586,0:08:27.825
Screens are miraculous;[br]I've already said that,

0:08:27.849,0:08:29.201
and I feel that it's true.

0:08:29.225,0:08:33.845
But the way we use them is a lot like[br]driving down a really fast, long road,

0:08:33.869,0:08:37.032
and you're in a car where the accelerator[br]is mashed to the floor,

0:08:37.056,0:08:39.104
it's kind of hard[br]to reach the brake pedal.

0:08:39.128,0:08:40.620
You've got a choice.

0:08:41.510,0:08:45.673
You can either glide by, past,[br]say, the beautiful ocean scenes

0:08:45.697,0:08:48.793
and take snaps out the window --[br]that's the easy thing to do --

0:08:48.817,0:08:52.357
or you can go out of your way[br]to move the car to the side of the road,

0:08:52.381,0:08:53.853
to push that brake pedal,

0:08:53.877,0:08:55.030
to get out,

0:08:55.054,0:08:56.935
take off your shoes and socks,

0:08:56.959,0:08:59.224
take a couple of steps onto the sand,

0:08:59.248,0:09:01.488
feel what the sand feels like[br]under your feet,

0:09:01.512,0:09:02.663
walk to the ocean,

0:09:02.687,0:09:04.800
and let the ocean lap at your ankles.

0:09:05.207,0:09:08.022
Your life will be richer[br]and more meaningful

0:09:08.046,0:09:10.264
because you breathe in that experience,

0:09:10.288,0:09:12.684
and because you've left[br]your phone in the car.

0:09:12.708,0:09:13.879
Thank you.

0:09:13.903,0:09:16.204
(Applause)