Are we addicted, naive or both?

Everywhere you go you see people staring down at their phone screens, totally tuned out. The average teenager probably spends about 6-7 hours on their phone per day. But I can guarantee that most people you ask would insist they don't have a problem. This article talks about the addiction aspect of cell phones. Apps have also been made to track the use of your cell phone each day. They can tell you how many times you unlock and use your phone, as well as a timer showing you how long you were on it each day. An app I used once even allowed you to set a limit on how long you could be on your phone and would notify you when it was up. I think things like this could be helpful to a person who has problems going "off the grid" even for an hour or so.
This past week I've been on an unplanned hiatus from my cell phone because of an unfortunate incident, and what I have observed in the time I've spent watching other people during class when I myself would have usually been on my phone has made me realise a few important things.
One thing I noticed was how much I actually enjoyed not having my cell phone. As crazy as it sounds, not being in-the-know all the time is kind of relaxing, and definitely has its perks. People would ask me if I "saw that thing on Twitter last night," and I would say "nope," with ease.
The most common reaction when I told someone my phone had been destroyed in a recent water incident was, not surprisingly, pity. They felt bad for me. Shortly after the pity would come the comment on how they would never be able to survive without their cell phone, which is false. I have proven it just last week. I went four solid days without any type of cell phone. I carried my laptop around with me at school so I could access my email, only when it was convenient to do so. I was off the grid 90-95% of the time and I to this day still haven't been on my social media (Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
Students in most of my classes rely on their phones to keep them occupied during down time, even just a few minutes, but even worse is sometimes that "down time" is work time, or even when the teacher is talking. People who don't understand what's going on, most likely just weren't paying attention. We think we can multitask, but we can't. This is scary, I wonder how many times this has happened to me with out me even knowing.

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