John Lanchester Quotes

In every public space, everyone has their head down on their phone. Including me.

Our generation, unfortunately, is stuck to our phones - and, like, Twitter - constantly, which I have no problem with. I'd say we're not describing the children of America or anything like that, but there is something to take from it: It is kind of sad how we can't go thirty minutes without checking our phone.

Our attention spans have been reduced by the immediate gratification provided by smartphones and social media.

Everyone has a really short attention span nowadays with social media, our phones. Even me - I can't go without touching my phone every five minutes.

You look out on the street, and everyone has their heads in their phones. Nobody's really looking up at the sky or the buildings and taking the day in. I try to be conscious of it, but everybody falls prey to it.

There's something really terrible about having your BlackBerry next to your bed or having your laptop in the living room when you're talking to someone. The biggest source of stress in my life is the screen, the blogging.

When you're directed by social media, I think it's very easy to lose a sense of agency. And you can see it when you go to any subway station, you walk down any street in a city, you will see 70-80 percent of people staring into their phones as they walk or stand.

Almost every time I go to the ocean, I think about throwing my phone right into it. Sometimes, you pull that thing out of your pocket, you look at it, and you're like, 'What was I just going to do with this? Was I going to take a note? Was I going to check my email? Was I going to take a picture?'

Look around you in any restaurant, and you will see couples, families, and friends glued to their phones.

Kids are so accustomed to technology that it's upsetting to watch them without their phones. They don't know what to do. Sometimes I feel like I'm like that, too - if I get my phone taken away because I'm grounded, I don't know what to do. So I just have to sit in my room and stare blankly at the ceiling.

My life is now a constant assessment of whether what's happening in real life is more entertaining than what's happening on my phone.

Even before smart phones and the Internet, we had many ways to distract our selves. Now that's compounded by a factor of trillions.

Technology is notorious for engrossing people so much that they don't always focus on balance and enjoy life at the same time.

I have a phone obsession. It's really hard on set sometimes because I'll be checking Instagram, and then I have to remember, 'Oh, crap, I have to shoot a scene or rehearse.' Every now and then, I have to turn it off and live my life.

I get concerned when I see kids on their phones. They don't read enough anymore, anything longer than a tweet.

Stand in my lobby at 5:30 P.M., and there is no one who gets out of the lift who is not on a gadget. No one is talking to each other. I get in the lift and say, 'Hello,' and everyone's head is down tapping on a screen.

I could give up my phone any day. I don't need it.

I hate technology and cellphones. I hate having to have one all of the time. I don't tweet or buzz or bing or whatever! It's a conscious thing - I hate the way that it can take over young people's lives.

Our phones have created what I like to call SADD - Social Attention Deficit Disorder.

I'll go out to eat and have a really good lunch and try to shut the phone off, but I can't, really, because the social media stuff will start happening.

I don't like the fact people watch things on their phones and tablets, it kind of hurts my heart.

In my head, I'm a purist that doesn't require anything but a group of good friends and a bottle of wine. In reality, I'm co-dependent on my iPhone and fully conscious of the fact that my attention span is corroding.

It's the smartphone that has turned adults and children alike into tech-addicted zombies, dumbly swiping and jabbing at their screens, oblivious to the world around them.

When we are trying to have a normal dinner out people with their Instagram accounts are relentless and it's profoundly obnoxious at times.

Under the deluge of minute-to-minute text conversations, emails, relentless exchange of media channels and passwords and apps and reminders and tweets and tags, we lose sight of what all this fuss is supposed to be about in the first place: ourselves.