Could the world make more money if we uninstall WhatsApp and Facebook from our phones?

Let's do a fair estimate at the beginning, how many of you will be picking up you smartphone half way into reading this article and check either WhatsApp or Facebook or something similar - I bet at least half if not more.

This tendency is slowly eating away our life, its making you lethargic, less productive and most importantly less focused than ever. The fake appreciation being sold (and monetized) by "easy likes" on Facebook and the unwanted jokes and updates on Whatsapp are not letting you do what you should be doing. Every 1 minute you spend on these apps takes away more than just that minute - it takes away the focus you had on the task in-hand, the intent you had towards that task, the appreciation other would have had towards you if you completed that on time and with best efforts. Whoever you are, a student or a corporate employee, you need to fight this tendency of "looking down" and we need to start NOW.

The tendency to look down and swipe to see something new

Are we consciously dealing with the tendency of picking up our phone's unnecessarily and checking "what's new?" or "what's happening?"? How often have we questioned ourselves on this tendency? Is the world changing every minute and it is important for you to keep a track? Are you a doctor getting messages from patients who need you to help them out? The answer is a big and on-your-face NO! 

So why are we "looking down" most of the times? I see people coming to  restaurant in a group and each individual is chatting with some other friend on their respective phones or browsing Facebook unnecessarily. I know being social has no boundaries in today's world, but aren't we just wasting time in this so-called connected world that could have been spent in a far better way? 

What Facebook gives us and what it takes away?

We are wasting time for easy appreciation. While we were kids and there were no social networks, being appreciated took effort. Relative to today, someone walking up to you and saying "hey, you are looking good" happened rarely. But what does it take now? The front camera of you phone clicks a nice selfie which is instantly uploaded on Facebook,  Instagram etc. by your award winning 4G connection and boom! - appreciation starts flowing, all the pseudo social friends of yours who are sitting in their own hollow- but yet-connected world start clicking a "like button" - wow 49 likes in 10 minutes - can you imagine 49 people walking up to you and saying the same! 

So all good huh? Whats there to lose? Unfortunately there is. Real appreciation matters a lot more than what you get online. Imagine a world where people just live for Facebook likes - trust me, its not too far. Time is being wasted day in and day out, good time, usable time, worthy time - you can call it what you want. They (social networks, telecom companies) are making a lot of money and we are losing a lot of time!

What is lost, really?

If all of the world smartphone users waste 15 minutes on  these unproductive "check-in's" everyday, we lose close to 30 billion minutes. So assuming as all of these people can read and write, they will be potentially earning the bare minimum wage rates applicable globally. So that's at least $4 per day (taking bare minimum). That makes the hourly rate as $0.50. So what are we losing in monetary terms? Its a whopping $250 million every day and increasing. Hence, every 4 days, $1 billion is lost as time that could have been monetized or invested. Invested in a better future, sustainability, education, health an what not. the cost in terms of the investment lost is even greater than the monetary loss I mentioned above. So in about 3 years, we lose as much as Facebook's valuation today or more (just checked it is close to $260 bn, which by the way does not benefit many of us). 

Another important aspect is the time lost by our teenagers - they are the future of this global economy and busy looking down - we will be most probably dealing with a mediocre world in the near future.  

I am not taking away the positives of the connected world, in our busy life we can share personal moments, chat and interact with buddies and even help people out when they are in need. However, I feel the addiction to these services needs to be addressed consciously so that the good parts stand out. 

So what is the world gaining in valuations and what all is being lost on the other hand is fairly clear - the question is - is it worth it?

Let's now get back to check the updates (if you haven't done it already) 

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Comments welcome at Vicky.Bahl (at) ConsultAvalon.com

(Disclaimer: views expressed in the article are those of the author, and they do not reflect in any way those of the institutions to which he is affiliated)

About the author:

Vicky Bahl is a strategy consulting professional based out of New Delhi and Mumbai, India. He has over 9 years of experience in advising companies on growth, innovation and transformation. He is currently working as an Associate Vice President with Avalon Consulting.