I hear it every year — about half of Americans say they want to spend less time on their cell phones. And every year, nothing changes.

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We tell ourselves to put it down, and except we don’t mean it — I think we do. We set screen time limits, and then it’s an hour later, and we’re watching a stranger organize their pantry.

We treat phone time like it’s a diet these days. We’re always about to start. Tomorrow. Monday. January. And just like dieting, waiting to change never turns into change itself.

Maybe not because we’re fighting the wrong battle. We’re trying to use the phone less, rather than asking what we’d do instead. Until we answer that, I suspect the phone will win — because the phone always has an answer, even when we don’t.

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