Smartphones.

I think they should be renamed as Dumbphones. The Orange buffoon would be proud to tell you there is a ‘B’ in dumb. I also think there is a bee in his cranium and it is buzzing around in the space that should hold a brain.

I think that for many people doomscrolling has become an addiction, a new sort of Mental Health issue.

Yesterday when I was sitting in the communal dining area at the hotel, I saw a guy sitting on a chair next to the swimming pool and he was on his phone, tapping away at the screen. In the four hours I spent working on my latest book Fairy Hanny and the Knights in White Satin, he was on his phone. I saw him move once for about ten minutes as his son got into the swimming pool. I think I was paying more attention to the kids safety thatn his father.

During this period a family of four arrived at reception. They had clearly booked rooms but as it was still mid-morning the other occupants had not checked out yet and the rooms weren’t ready. No problem really, so the family sat down on the sofa and chairs in the reception area and each one promptly produced a phone and sat tapping away. I did not notice if any of them spoke to one another. Two of them were still sitting tapping away when I went swimming at 4pm!

While swimming a pretty young bikini clad lady approached the pool. Initially she sat on the edge with her legs dangling in the water, tapping and scrolling. After a while she climbed into the kids pool area, still holding her phone! After a bout 10 minutes she put her phone down and ducked under the water. She rapidly emerged with wet hair streaming down her back, and instantly went to her phone, desperate to see if anything had happened during her two minutes under the water! She then got out and walked off tapping and scrolling…

Meanwhile, my phone was up in my room charging.

Maybe it was all chat with friends back home and maybe sharing photographs of the last three meals they have all eaten; maybe I am being too judgemental.

I wanted to ask one of them what they were doing. I imagine the conversation would have gone like this;

Me; Have you got the Scrolls?

Him; No -it’s just tight underpants!