Interestingly, I’ve found that things which should be chores, for example checking my messages or notifications, have started to become treats — I get a dopamine rush from doing them.

I think if I want to cut down my phone use, I need to start consciously treating these things as chores instead. The only reason I do them should be because I have to do them.

Ethan, Threats vs chores

Here are three things that I’ve learned in the past 12 months: Technology showed its utility by helping people and businesses manage through a crisis. Our increasingly digital lives have also created new problems that will be hard to fix. And the most important things have nothing to do with technology.

Shira Ovide, Our Virtual Pandemic year