On Screen Time
I’m not interested in reducing my screen time.
My work — mostly writing and designing — is far easier and more efficient than it was writing or typing by hand or drafting in permanent ink on vellum — trying for (but never achieving) perfection on the first pass, so I wouldn’t have to do it all over again.
I check the weather, traffic conditions, news headlines and important emails on my phone in the morning. Altogether on a normal week, I watch 4-6 hours of streamed media while on the treadmill or doing laundry. My interest in what we once called television ebbed long ago, so that when our cable went out for a couple of weeks, we didn’t notice and decided to cancel it. That was about 2010.
I carry a couple of dozen books on my phone that open in my Kindle app, and in my leisure time, I read, mostly novels. I read while waiting for appointments at the dentist’s and doctor’s offices and at the car service stations, in the morning before work and in the evening after cleaning the kitchen. Looking at the characters on a paper page just isn’t all that different from looking at the same characters on my phone. And the phone is less bulky to carry around.
On Customer Service
If you want good customer service, try being a good customer.
I usually receive good customer service from people working in retail settings. People tend to be polite and helpful when I’m polite and respectful. When the service is poor, it’s usually not the people I interact with who are responsible, but rather the short staffing or stress they are under. It’s not hard to show some empathy. (Most customer service problems I have experienced have been the result of poorly designed automation. I will save that observation for another time.)
On the other hand, A former colleague bemoaned pervasive low quality customer service in retail at any opportunity. He took me shopping once, and from the moment we entered the store, he was condescending and rude to store staff. I was embarrassed to be with him. The service he received was far better than he deserved.