# When and Why do we Grab our Phones?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-school-of-life-7778042/when-and-why-do-we-pick-up-our-phones
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-school-of-life-7778042/when-and-why-do-we-pick-up-our-phones.md
Podcast: [The School of Life](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-school-of-life-7778042)
Published: 2026-06-17T06:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9900089724.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9900089724.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-school-of-life-7778042/episodes/when-and-why-do-we-pick-up-our-phones
Duration seconds: 324

## Resource

We may check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://www.theschooloflife.com/the-school-of-life-youtube/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=When%20and%20Why%20Do%20We%20Pick%20Up%20our%20Phones Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=When%20and%20Why%20Do%20We%20Pick%20Up%20our%20Phones FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/when-and-why-do-we-pick-up-our-phones/#:~:text=There%20are%20the%20standard%2C%20conventional,and%20too%20kind%20to%20us.?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=When%20and%20Why%20Do%20We%20Pick%20Up%20our%20Phones “There are the standard, conventional-sounding answers: we check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. We don’t pick up our phones to find out what’s going on, we pick them up to ensure – with considerable ruthlessness – that we are in no danger of finding out anything more about ourselves. If we forensically study the moments…

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## Transcript

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