Smartphone addiction is a growing problem in society. Could a technique called situation modification be the key to overcoming it?
Welcome to the 137th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. Along with situation modification, this week’s edition has information on Ontario’s upcoming recycling changes, good news for sea turtle conservation, and even better news on green energy adoption from Australia.
On my mind this week: Using situation modification to overcome smartphone addiction
I’ve shared in earlier posts that I’m a fan of Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome and other inspiring books. Again this week, one of Neil’s blog posts gave me food for thought. This time, the topic was smartphone addiction—something most of us are guilty of no matter how much we try to convince ourselves it isn’t a problem.
Neil’s post featured a commencement speech at Maine’s Bates College. The speaker was Angela Duckworth, author of Grit. During her speech, Duckworth shared startling research about cellphone addiction.
The most alarming, if not surprising, thing Duckworth learned in her research is the extent to which phones have replaced face-to-face interaction. In short, our phones have become adult pacifiers. Even worse, people turn increasingly to AI chatbots for life advice, companionship, and even for love. Scary stuff! What Duckworth calls “social junk food” provides short-term gratification at the cost of long-term nourishment.
Enter situation modification
Duckworth suggests willpower is not sufficient to overcome cellphone addiction. Instead, she suggested using a technique called situation modification.
Successful strivers are exquisitely aware of how the situation shapes their behaviour, and they deliberately design their situations in ways that make wise choices easier.
Angela Duckworth
Situation modification means using physical distance to create psychological distance. In short, we need to physically push away what we don’t want, and keep physically close to us what we do want. It sounds so simple, yet it’s so difficult for many—especially for a generation that grew up with a cellphone attached to their hand.
6 ideas to implement situation modification
Duckworth ended her speech with 6 simple ideas to implement situation modification.
- Put our phones in another room when we need to focus.
- Change our screen to sky ratio by getting outside more.
- Implement a “no phones on the table” rule during dinner.
- When driving, keep our phones out of arms reach.
- Don’t keep phones in the bedroom.
- Listen to Ezra Klein’s podcast episode with author Zadie Smith.
I’m doing quite well on numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. As for number 5, I always kept my phone downstairs at night until I got my Ozlo sleepbuds. The sleepbuds require my phone to be in close proximity to the smart case at night. I will look into that this week. And I’ll listen to the podcast recommended in number 6.
Commit to situation modification because this is what mindfulness looks like in the digital age. Not willpower, but the wisdom to shape the situations that shape you.
Angela Duckworth
Neil’s blog post has the link to the video of Duckworth’s speech, and the full transcript of her talk. It’s well worth the 20 minutes to watch or read it.
Let’s all try to do better!
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- I made a delicious chick pea curry for lunch on Wednesday. The recipe came from Laura when I visited her earlier this month.
- On Thursday, our Alpha Course committee from church got together for our first planning meeting for Alpha 2026.
- I visited my Mum on Friday, and we spent some time looking through old photos. So many memories.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
Sea turtle conservation efforts are working
The once-endangered sea turtle has bounced back in a big way. The global population of green sea turtles has increased by 28% since the 1970s, leading the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to reclassify them from endangered to least concern.
A couple of years ago, I adopted a sea turtle nest in the Philippines. It feels good to know I made a small contribution to this good news.
(Source: Vox.com)
Recycling changes coming in Ontario in 2026
Heads up Waterloo Region residents! Changes are coming to our recycling programs in 2026.
Under Ontario’s new provincial recycling program, everyone will be able to recycle items such as coffee cups, deodorant and toothpaste tubes, black plastic containers, frozen juice containers, and ice cream tubs.
Residents will receive two new blue bins, and collection will shift to bi-weekly from weekly to coincide with changes to waste collection.
Although this appears to be good news, I’ll be studying it more closely in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
(Source: 570 News)
Australians reap the benefits of green energy
Australia has embraced green energy in a big way and its citizens are starting to reap the benefits. Starting in July 2026, all electricity customers in three states will get free electricity for up to three hours per day.
How did they do it? By increasing widespread adoption of residential rooftop solar panels through government incentives. I hope other countries are paying attention.
(Source: ABC News Australia)
This week’s simple living challenge – Unsubscribe from emails
Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.
This week’s challenge is to unsubscribe from marketing emails, and any other emails you don’t read. You’ll love your streamlined inbox.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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Smartphones are great, but also a pain. I’m doing a lot better since I silenced all notifications and set up a Do Not Disturb from 6 PM to 8 AM, except for key numbers and news alerts in my metro area.
That’s terrific that you have such a long period of do not disturb time, Edward. I have definitely found a difference since I turned off almost all notifications and limit my time on social media.
It definitely makes a difference.
Deodorant and toothpaste tubes plus ice cream containers. That’s impressive! Thanks for the update, Michelle!
It is impressive, but I am still a bit skeptical about the future of our recycling programs in Ontario. I just don’t trust the provincial government to do the right thing. I will be watching!
So good, Michelle! I love, love, love Angela Duckworth and she continues to bring on-point observations forward. Such a balancing act, as Brenda pointed out, with workplace pressures. Terrific Sunday morning food for thought! 💝
Thanks Vicki. I had never heard of Angela until this week, but I will definitely seek out her book now. It is very challeging with the pressure to be “on” 24-7, but it’s not healthy.
I hope you’ve had a terrific Sunday. 🤗
Oh….you will really embrace her book “Grit”! When it was first published in 2016 we made immediate use of her perspective to write student success grants. Still on point! I hope you like it…let me know! Xo! 🥰
Great thoughts on smartphone addition, Michelle. I remember meeting a very successful business man around 2007 and I was *shocked* that he used a dumb flip phone! After talking to him about his WHY, I removed games, social media, and all other desirable or distracting apps from my own phone. For nearly 20 years, my phones have been capable of nothing more than call, text, camera, and calculator functions. Certainly not for everyone, but I’m very grateful to have never been sucked into social media and smart addiction. Sometimes the situation modification can be removing the triggers all together.
Also, what great news about the sea turtles! Thank you for sharing.
That’s great Erin. I have drastically reduced my social media use this year, and have turned off almost all notifications on my phone. It has definitely made a difference in my level of focus and overall wellbeing.
Great ideas in this post. I might need to use situation modification in the classroom. But I also think as we’re being pushed to use AI more at work, its increasing my time on screen.
We’re having a change to recycling here probably over the next week, and we’ll be able to recycle more plastic, including any film that says it can’t be recycled – thats a good move. Also we haven’t had any food waste collection for years. Thats restarting too and they’re collecting most of the waste every 4 days.
Yes, we increasingly live our lives on screens, don’t we?
The changes to your waste collection sound positive. Our green bin program for food waste made a huge difference in the amount of waste going to landfill. I think it extended the life of our landfill by about 20 years.
I think the council, possibly all in the UK, have zero landfill targets to reach by about 2030.