> I wouldn't put phones as the responsible one so generally.

From my experience, phone is an extremely common factor. If you randomly take a peek at any person in the 1st and 2nd world during their "downtime", I bet that you will 99% of the time see them on their phone. Phone have absolutely consumed everything we used to do.

I cannot remember seeing a person just sitting on chair staring blankly, they almost always are on their phone or listening to something.

Well yes, what I was trying to imply was that we usually use our phones in combination with social media, not the phone without social media. If we were to try to mindlessly scroll through the android settings app, at some point it just gets boring and we put our phones away (or open up an actual social media app).

Well... there are other things you can do besides staring blankly. Reading a book, perhaps? Having a conversation?

Granted, these are two things that pretty much have a one-to-one counterpart on phones.

Well, sitting and staring blankly has been socially unusual for decades at least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBBQdFSvvTE

That said: I don’t pull out my phone when waiting in line, I don’t usually have a book or newspaper handy, and I often don’t feel like talking with a stranger (though I will sometimes). That leaves me alone with my thoughts. Despite the implication of descriptions like “staring blankly”, though, my mind is absolutely active during those times. Sometimes it’s calm, sometimes it’s running a mile a minute. Maybe I’m daydreaming, maybe I’m replaying a book or movie scene in my head, maybe I’m making plans for the day, maybe I’m debating with myself or thinking philosophical thoughts or trying to work out what I should say in an upcoming meeting. Thinking thoughts is active, and I don’t consider it time wasted.

Humans don’t have to be fed stimulation 24/7—the mind is a self‐stimulating organ.

I wouldn’t argue that staring blankly is helpful in itself. But having time with nothing to engage your attention almost forces you to face your own thoughts and feelings, which many people prefer to avoid. That type of avoidance is at the root of a lot of mental health problems, and people go to therapy to learn how to face their thoughts and feelings head-on.

I am not saying its useful or anything but I remember just being absolutely bored to death constantly when I was a child. I have to wait for 2-3 hours every day for my mom to come pick me up with absolutely NOTHING to do during that time. I don't have phones, all my friends already left, and I can't wonder outside of school. So I spent those time simply just sitting at the entrance gate and wander about random stuffs.

Now that might be psychopathic but being constantly poked by phones is not good either.

A person sitting on a chair alone staring blankly would be considered a sociopath these days.

I often worry about what others will think of me if I put away my phone and rest in silence.

It's funny, because I'm the opposite. I have a habit where, when I see or hear someone I know coming, I quickly put my phone away and pretend I wasn't just on my phone, unless it's obvious, in which case I just put it away without hiding anything.

…You do?

If you actually want to put your phone away but avoid doing so because you’re worried about what people would think, let me encourage you to ignore them. In my experience, one doesn’t suffer serious (or even moderate) social problems from being a phone‐skeptical person.