Humane
Tech.

Misra et al. found that conversations held with a phone merely visible — face-down on the table or in hand — were rated significantly lower in connectedness and empathy than phone-free conversations, with the strongest effect on close relationships. The mere presence of a device, not its use, was enough to degrade the interaction.

Twenge and colleagues found that depression, self-harm, and suicide among U.S. adolescents rose sharply beginning around 2012 — the same window in which smartphone and social-media adoption became near-universal — with the strongest effects among girls and the heaviest screen users.

Reviews.org's national surveys find that 70–85% of Americans check their phone within ten minutes of waking, and roughly one in four reach for it in under a minute — a pattern that argues for designing physical phone-free environments rather than relying on willpower.

Thorndike et al. found that simply placing water bottles at eye level in a hospital cafeteria — without removing soda — increased water sales by 25.8% and cut soda sales by 11.4%. Designing the environment, not exhorting the chooser, is what shifts behavior at scale.