Distance!

August 16th, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Our thumbs keep those tiny screens moving up and moving down, sometimes sideways to the right and sometimes sideways to the left. Up. Down. Left. Right.

Did you ever wonder how much your fingers move on your phone? Wonder no more. A recent study sponsored by Tollfree Forwarding (a service that does just that) reported on what they had found.

With the average American spending 6 hours and 35 minutes a day on screens, adding up to 2,403 hours annually. It’s no surprise that we’re logging some serious scrolling mileage. But this isn’t just about time spent staring at our phones. People check their devices an average of 58 times a day, with over half of those interruptions happening during work hours. Even more alarming? Half of those checks happen within just three minutes of the last, creating a nonstop loop of distraction. This kind of constant task-switching isn’t just a harmless habit. It can slash productivity by as much as 40%. That got us thinking: if we’re spending this much time on our phones, how far are we actually scrolling each year? So, we ran the numbers and broke it down by state.”

On top of the list? Arizona. 8 hours and 50 minutes on the screen per person per day. An estimated 115 miles annually is how far Arizonans go with their thumbs! #2 was Washington. Ye olde state of Kentucky, my current station, was #3 averaged 8 hours and 17 minutes of screen time per resident = 108 miles. #s 4 and 5 were Missouri and New Mexico. (Believe it or not, California and New York were not in the top 10!)

(To calculate the finger-traveling distances, investigators converted the average screen time per day into seconds, divided that by the number of seconds per scroll, and then multiplied each figure by the length of a scroll in inches.)

Talk about going far. And the ramifications are considerable:

Wasted productivity costs the global economy an estimated $8.8 trillion each year, and a major culprit behind this staggering figure is excessive phone use. Constant notifications, endless scrolling, and frequent task-switching chip away at our focus and efficiency. In fact, studies show that excessive phone use can reduce productivity by as much as 40 percent. For businesses, this means lost hours, lower output, and a serious hit to performance across teams. As phones continue to blur the line between work and distraction, the financial impact of screen time is becoming impossible to ignore.”

Going far, indeed!

Sometimes it does feel like we have to go far.

Be not far from me, for distress is near, for there is no one who is a helper. …
I have been poured out like water, and all my bones have been dislocated;
my heart has become like wax; it has melted in the middle of my insides. …
But You, Yahweh, be not far; my strength, hasten to my help.
Psalm 22:11, 14, 19

But we don’t!

The eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous, and His ears to their cry for help. …
Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted, and those crushed in spirit He delivers. …
Yahweh redeems the soul of His servants.
Psalm 34:15, 18, 22

Yes, God is near!

For, behold, those far from You perish;
You terminate all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have set the Lord Yahweh [as] my refuge,
that I may recount all Your acts.
Psalm 73:27–28

Nope, no need to go far!

SOURCE: New York Post; Tollfree Forwarding