Focus on ‘mobile moments’: Four steps

Fifty years from now, society will look back at how we use mobile phones today “and they will think we were crazy,” Uwe Hook told attendees at CO-OP Financial Services’ THINK 16 conference Wednesday in San Diego.

That’s because peoples’ attachment to these devices is reaching unhealthy levels. Hook, founder/principal of Gretchenfrage, cited a Google survey that revealed U.S. consumers check their phones an average of 180 times a day, and many sleep within arm’s reach of them.

“Mobile phones are the cigarettes of this century,” Hook said. “They’re very addictive” and they’re becoming a social liability.

“They’re hampering our ability to socialize,” he added. “People want to get away from mobile interactions and have real interactions.”

This has led to the rise of “mindfulness meeting places” where no phones are allowed or where there’s no Wi-Fi.

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