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You spend 23 days a year on your phone, say new figures

You spend more than three weeks a year looking at your phone, according to new figures -- four years over the course of your life.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm

How long do you spend looking at your phone? More than three weeks a year, according to new figures. Cor, it's amazing you haven't permanently cricked your neck.

MobileInsurance.co.uk asked 2,314 phone owners how much time they spent each day sending texts, making calls, using apps and games or anything else on their phones. The average answer is 90 minutes per day spent poking and prodding their blower.

That's 32,850 minutes a year, or 22.8 days.

Over the course of the average person's life, that's 1,414 days -- 3.9 years -- spent squinting at a little piece of glass and plastic.

Of course, these aren't the most scientific figures, but it does illustrate just how central to our lives the mobile phone has become.

The survey also reveals what people use their phones for. These days, browsing the Internet and sending texts are more popular than making phone calls. Perhaps it's time we renamed the mobile phone -- telepod, anyone?

Other mobile phone insurance providers include ProtectYourBubble and GadgetGuardian, or your bank. 

Is 90 minutes of phone-poking per day about right, or do you spend even more time staring at your dog and bone? Have phones made our lives better, or are we slaves to our mobiles? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page -- and if you're reading this on a phone, put it down and go and talk to some actual humans. Just joking -- click the ads.