Japanese town looks to limit all smartphone use to two hours a day –

Hmm, scrolling small screen. What better break is there to working on big screen than going through the small screen and seeing meaningless videos and posts fly by your eyes at breakneck pace? Outside? Never heard of it, mate.

While it might sound like a viewpoint straight out of a boomer comic, phone addiction is becoming real and people will gladly spend hours a day zooming through TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and more. One Japanese town is looking to tackle phone addiction through a two-hour daily limit for all of its residents.

The Toyoake municipal government in Aichi is debating legislation that would see the limit imposed on all 69,000 residents in the small Japanese town. It would not be a forceful time limit, but merely a guideline, according to Toyoake Mayor Masafumi Koki (via the BBC). “I hope this serves as an opportunity for each family to think about and discuss the time spent on smartphones as well as the time of day the devices are used,” he said.

Smartphone use for cooking, exercising, online learning and practising for Esports will not count towards the limit, according to Koki, who wants to see less people sacrificing their time in other activities for doomscrolling.

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120 residents called and emailed authorities during a consultation period, with 80% of them being unhappy about the restriction, but that doesn’t mean it will be dismissed.