Opening
The message arrives while you are halfway through a task, then another arrives while you are eating, and suddenly your attention belongs to everyone except the person in front of you. The phone promises connection, but it can quietly take the very time and presence that make connection satisfying.
The idea
Mark Saxby is a journalist turned social media reformer and the creator of the Be More Colin campaign. His framework is not an invitation to reject technology. It is an invitation to use it deliberately. Mark began with a colleague named Colin who believed he never left work on time.
Mark noticed that Colin was repeatedly interrupted by messages, and suggested he stop checking them. Colin tried it and got away on time. That small experiment became a memorable principle. Be more Colin means notice the interruption, make a change, and reclaim the result.
Mark connected this to the way phones blur the boundaries between work and personal life. We bring private messages into focused work, then carry unfinished work into our personal hours. Breaks that might once have included conversation become time spent shopping, watching, or scrolling alone. The cost is not only productivity.
It is the lost opportunity for the ordinary social moments that help work feel human. Mark's advice is specific. Audit what each platform gives you. Ask whether you are using it for friendship, expression, solidarity, or a clear professional purpose. Then clean up the channels that no longer serve you.
His work with Positive Social extends the same question to children and families. He said:
“Be inspired by Colin. He made a change, and so can you.”
What I took from it
I remember a workplace in Cardiff where there was a no phones at your desk policy. It felt strangely spacious. I had not realised how much of my day had been fragmented until the interruptions stopped.
I still love the possibilities of digital connection, especially when the people I love are far away. But living in Canada after moving from the UK has taught me that technology should help me cross distance, not make me absent from the room I am already in.
Three things to try this week
- Choose one 30 minute block today and place your phone out of reach. Notice what becomes possible in the space.
- Write your purpose for one social platform in a sentence. Use it only for that purpose for the next seven days.
- Create a shared phone basket or phone free meal at home. Explain that the aim is more attention, not punishment.
Listen and go deeper
Play the episode above, then explore the guest's work at Mark Saxby.
Close
Our five years of applied research show that connection is shaped by attention as much as access. The question is not whether technology belongs in our lives. It is whether our choices leave enough room for Social Wealth. Explore the research, then ask what you want your attention to make possible.