You probably don’t need to wear a heart-rate monitor while at work, as the subjects in one 2016 study did, to determine that time spent on email is “significantly associated with stress”. Between 2005 and 2019, the number of messages the average business user sent and received in a day increased from 50 to 126, which roughly equates to one every four minutes.

WhatsApp? We’ll tell you WhatsApp. For users, free end-to-end encrypted messages and calls can come at a cost – and that’s before we get to the risk that anything you say could be used as evidence in a court of law. Who among us hasn’t been pinged at an ungodly hour, accidentally sent a shopping list to the wrong person or blinked and received 473 messages as a group chat has blown up? Then there’s mixing up the main group and the side chat (skull emoji). Our always-on reality means that our feed is often buried under a flurry of Gifs, stickers and voice notes. But will they notice if you mute the chat? Here are five groups that we’d really like to exit now.

In November 2022, the British National Health Service reported a 42 per cent rise in referrals for gambling addiction. That this issue has worsened in recent years is no surprise. Anyone can access a 24-hour casino in their pocket with just a few swipes of their thumb. And in an era when everyone is addicted to their smartphone, who knows – or even cares – whether you’re spending all day on Instagram or betting apps? It’s all just bright lights, levers and rewards. Dopamine hits, most of which just sap your time. Some of which can drain your money and ruin your life.

Summer is over. Time to cease and desist with Barbenheimer. Enough of watching Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour on TikTok. And if you didn’t finish reading Yellowface on holiday, that ship, my friend, has sailed. We’ve all moved on you see, from summer blockbusters and this year’s beach reads to the shiny new cultural happenings of autumn 2023.

You probably don’t need to wear a heart-rate monitor while at work, as the subjects in one 2016 study did, to determine that time spent on email is “significantly associated with stress”. Between 2005 and 2019, the number of messages the average business user sent and received in a day increased from 50 to 126, which roughly equates to one every four minutes.

WhatsApp? We’ll tell you WhatsApp. For users, free end-to-end encrypted messages and calls can come at a cost – and that’s before we get to the risk that anything you say could be used as evidence in a court of law. Who among us hasn’t been pinged at an ungodly hour, accidentally sent a shopping list to the wrong person or blinked and received 473 messages as a group chat has blown up? Then there’s mixing up the main group and the side chat (skull emoji). Our always-on reality means that our feed is often buried under a flurry of Gifs, stickers and voice notes. But will they notice if you mute the chat? Here are five groups that we’d really like to exit now.