A decade ago, you paid for a smartphone to get 24/7 access to a world that, while demanding of your attention and full of advertising, was made up of a greater share of pleasurable, novel, or at least elective stuff: social media; entertainment; communication with friends; a bit of freedom from your desk at work, if you wanted it. […] Now, smartphones are an obligatory purchase with an inverted purpose: to provide the rest of your life, which followed smartphone users online, with access to you.

John Herrman, “Is Your Phone the Reason You Feel Broke?”