Mobile is creating a better future.

But we must take care of today.

In today′s world, our phones make our lives easier but also fill us with anxiety, it is both our greatest tool and most mind numbing tool.

On the great side, we can find information immediately, share our lives freely, reach out to family at any time, re-connect with old friends and to bring people who are far away near us. In fact, mobile now connects more than two-thirds of the world’s population.

But on the other hand, studies show that mobile phone usage affects our health (sleep cycles, eyes, neck back and shoulders) our sex lives (1 in 5 18-34 year olds have checked their phone during sex) and interpersonal relations (the average person checks their phone 110 times a day).

So how do we find the middle ground?

The Mobile World Congress is coming to Barcelona again this month and I am hoping to find the answer to that question there.

My instincts tell me that learning as much as possible about what’s coming and then taking away the parts that most align with my principles, will be the key to making the most of the conference and leaving with real sense of purpose.

According to the site, this year there will be 8 main themes prevalent throughout the conference:

• The 4th Industrial revolution – Automated society
• Future services provider – Operators need to address their business plan
• The network – Opportunities and tech challenges
• The digital consumer - Data driven, automated, intelligent and personalized customer relationship is evolving
• Tech in society - A tool without guidance, ethics and craft is useless or even dangerous.
• Content & Media - Relationships between content creators, distributors and consumers continue to evolve
• Applied AI – Science fiction is here
• Innovation – The most innovative solutions, are after all, often the most unexpected and therefore hard to classify.

While all of these topics fascinate me and several are directly linked to my line of work, I am specifically interested in seeing how human connection ties into to all of these themes.

It will be an opportunity to see how the mobile industry and other technologies will help us in the next few years as business leaders but also as human beings. As the leader of a human centric company, with strong principles, I find very helpful to learn about these topics through that lens.

With all of the opportunities that lies before us and literally the palm of our hand, I am more excited than ever to see where we are going, but also how we are going about it.

So, to quote the always inspiring Elon Musk,

“I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future.”

 I couldn′t agree more, even if that means not checking my phone 100 times a day.