69% of a recent SureCall study says smartphone users check their phones while using the toilet (59% do it daily – check the phone in the bathroom, that is).

75% sleep with the phone on or near the bed.

These people were more likely to say they are sad.

10% check their phones during sex (43% said they checked the phone while having relations two to ten times in the past year).

Our children are wearing us down and negotiating more access to something that also has a detrimental side.

Schools are helping because iPads are a teaching aid that saves on book expenses for local municipalities.

Phones are tools to bring us information, entertainment and connectivity.

When they become our lives, a good place to start reeling it in is now.

In the past week I have taken the advice of a former Google code writer who says the main goal of app makers is to serve more and more ads.

That advice?

Use only the first two screens on your phone for apps that do not require a lot of attention – WAZE, Uber, weather, etc. not social media.

Apps requiring attention – also known as black holes like social media apps, news, YouTube – should be in a folder the way we put liquor in a cabinet so that when we open it, we know exactly what we are going to get and don’t abuse it.

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