344 times a day. That is the average number of times an adult checks their phone, according to the BBC. Every four minutes. Even at night, even for no reason, even without a notification.
In tropical forests, there is an ant that climbs onto a leaf, clamps itself there and dies. A fungus has taken control of its nervous system to spread its spores more effectively. Biologists call it a parasitic infection. Poets would call it a dispossession of the living.
That fungus took millions of years to perfect its strategy. Our smartphones needed only a decade. The biological parasite forces its host. The digital parasite has convinced its host that it can no longer live without it.
This parallel between biological parasitism and digital colonisation is not just a metaphor. It is a modus operandi. The same mechanisms, the same precision, the same result: a host working for its parasite while believing it acts freely.
So perhaps the real question is not: are we addicted to our screens? But at what point did we stop being the masters and become the host?
Find the full transcript of this episode, along with all the sources and plenty more, at: Willingly embraced parasitism