The Critical Commentator

  There's a new it-bag in fashion but this time it is not about a designer, label or splashy logo. Instead, it's what's inside that counts. So called "analogue bags" filled with activities such as crossword puzzles, knitting, novels and journals have become the accessory of the season, championed by millennials and Gen Z as a way to reduce screen time. Bag unknown artist Photo Credit: Embroiderers Guild {CC BY-NC-ND] Similar to a prep bag, the analogue bag or basket should contain all the essentials to remain offline for as long as possible. One user compares it to "a toy box for your attention span". David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog, approves... "Our phones have everything you could ever ask for so you need an alternative to hand in order to fill that void."  The term was coined by Sierra Campbell, a 31 year-old California content creator. "My biggest fear is that I'll lie on my deathbed and regret how much time  I spent on...

  There are two certainties in life: death and taxes. It seems now the uber-rich and famous appear to believe thar they may be able to avoid them both. Leading health professionals have recognised a new disorder, longevity fixation syndrome, which they say is an obsession with longevity so all consuming it begins to take over daily life. Now a Swiss clinic has said that it has seen a "significant uptick" in clients coming to them exhibiting symptoms. On the lakefront in Zurich, the upper echelons of society make their way to Paracelsus Recovery, a mental health clinic with a highly personalised and skilled team treating patients for about £90,000 a week. Immortality Henry Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) Photo Credit: Museum of Wales [Public Domain] Jan Gerber, the founder and chief executive, said: "It's like any fixation, like an eating disorder or a classic behavioural addiction... People start giving up on things that are important for them - the career can suffer, pers...

  Tracking our kids' every move with phones or AirTags is causing a "deeply concerning" increase in anxiety among young people, according to more than 70 psychologists, doctors, nurses and health professionals who have come together to urge parents to "reconsider whether the surveillance childhood we are sleepwalking into is really benefiting our children." They add: "We are implicitly telling them that the world is unsafe," and warn that constant monitoring prevents kids learning the skills and developing the autonomy necessary to navigate real life. "It's so normal to want to keep our children safe," says Clare Fernyhough, co-founder of the campaign group, Generation Focus. "But there is no evidence that tracking makes them any safer." A Huntsman with His Horse and a Group of Hounds Charles Bilger Spalding (1810-1871) Photo Credit : Walker Art Gallery [CC BY-NC] It's also a staggering invasion of privacy. I would never tra...

Five years ago, Thomas Yarrow was going through a difficult time: his marriage was breaking down. He was aware of the advice given to all men  at such moments: that it's essential for your mental health to open up to friends, to talk about your feelings, to express your emotions. His response? to spend lots of time with people who didn't talk much at all... and when they did, the discussion was about welding, axles and engine parts... Now Yarrow, [professor of anthropology at Durham University] 48, is publishing a groundbreaking study of the relationships within the group - and it will not make him popular with the burgeoning mental health industry that centres on  coaxing men into emotional disclosure. In fact a stiff upper lip, he found, serves many men pretty well. The study, published later this month in the journal American Ethnologist , is subtitled "Rethinking male friendship and the value of personal reticence".... It argues that research routinely linking emo...

  Courtesy is such a quiet force that its crumbling in formerly expected places can feel as shocking as a trusted handrail suddenly giving way... The flashiest slurs have emanated from the White House. In November President Trump aggrieved by a female reporter's question about Jeffrey Epstein, snapped back: "Quiet Piggy!" Earlier this month he dismissed Somali immigrants as "garbage". When the Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife were fatally stabbed... Trump suggested that Reiner's tragic death was caused by his negative stance on the president himself and because he suffered from a mind-crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome... The First Madness of Ophelia Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Photo Credit: Gallery Oldham [CC BY-NC-ND]  Trash talk aimed at political opponents and journalists or socially divisive language, did not commonly feature in presidential statements... By maintaining decorum in their public speech, previous preside...

  A study from 2024 found that 45% of Gen Z and 39% of millennials were actively trying to reduce their screentime, a number I can only imagine is increasing daily. My rationale had less to do with being anti-phone - I don't think every second spent on a screen is inherently harmful - but more to do with the free time I was losing. There was a richer life being sacrificed for what was mostly a mind-numbingly bad habit. The prevailing argument for how to resolve phone addiction is that all you need to do is just stop... We're told it's a matter of grit and discipline, something most of us simply lack. There is now a thriving industry of apps and technology dedicated to getting you off  your phone, which operate on this vague assumption... These interventions do work for some people. But for most, they serve as a Sisyphean torment: that even if you do briefly log off, you find the nothingness excruciating and are struck with how badly you are itching to return. You're als...