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Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
My phone addiction is poisoning my retirement. I'm setting rules to help me reclaim my golden years.
When Orrin Onken retired in 2020, he thought his golden years would look quiet and relaxing. Instead, he realized his phone addiction was recreating the stress he experienced at work. Onken, a former lawyer, is now setting rules to prevent his phone from poisoning his retirement. Recently, I decided to watch The Brutalist — a movie that's won multiple Academy Awards and has been widely praised by critics — with my wife. I got snacks from the kitchen, snuggled into my recliner, and prepared to be mesmerized by great art. Not even 10 minutes had passed before I reached for my smartphone. No one was calling me. I wasn't expecting any texts, emails, or alerts. Yet, as the movie played, for reasons unknown even to me, I was staring at the tiny screen in my hand. Relentless phone-checking has become a regular occurrence in my life, so much so that it's poisoning my retirement. It's become an addiction, and I'm determined to overcome it. When I was a lawyer, my phone was mostly a helpful tool I retired from the practice of law in 2020. During my working years, my screen time was quite limited. My staff screened calls to the office, and I checked emails twice a day on my computer. My mobile mostly stayed in my pocket, reserved for communicating with my office on court days or for calling my wife. When the time came for me to stop working, my retirement plans were ordinary. I imagined the time-consuming demands of clients and courts would be replaced by travel, gardening, and the leisurely reading of good books. But what I didn't predict was that my handy pocket computer would turn on me and become a source of the kind of stress I retired to escape. As a retiree, I find myself checking my phone all too often My smartphone is an amazing tool. It opens and starts my car. With it, I can locate my house keys, my luggage, and even my wife. I can change the temperature in my home and see what the security cameras see. I can read books, play five-minute chess, and follow the news. But what do I really do? I check it dozens of times a day for little or no reason. I get hooked on clickbait in my news feed: "The ingredient that every grilled cheese sandwich needs," "Five exercises that will give you eternal life," and whatever else the algorithm has concocted to catch my attention. When I was still working as a lawyer, I didn't get sucked into my news feed in the same way, mostly because I didn't have the time. Nowadays, I find myself checking my phone because it relieves the anxiety I feel when I leave it unchecked for too long. In the course of my life, I've overcome difficulties with alcohol, nicotine, and overeating. With each of those addictions, I knew I was in trouble when I was no longer going for the substance to feel good, but because using gave me temporary respite from withdrawal symptoms. I was doing the same thing with my phone. Over time, I realized the relaxed retirement I'd envisioned was being sandwiched into the intervals between checking my phone. During my working days, I obsessed about my cases, and my mind would wander off to one of them at random moments. Today, it wanders off similarly to the call of social media and my news feed. Phones are too valuable a tool in our modern society for abstinence, so I knew I had to learn to regulate my screen use instead of going cold turkey. The journey to wean myself from addiction has begun I want a retirement in which I participate in the world, instead of being pulled out of it by repeatedly engaging in behaviors that don't make me happy. My first step toward this goal was to admit my dependence and then become sensitive to the difference between using my phone productively and grabbing it at every uncomfortable juncture in life. Two months ago, I set some rules I adapted from when I quit smoking twenty-five years ago. I'd notice when I felt an urge to check my phone, and then tell myself to wait 10 minutes. When that time had passed, I'd often forget about the urge or decide I could wait another 10 minutes. My aim is to be intentional about checking my phone. And it's working. Those intermittent rewards are already losing their grip on me. When I do eventually look at my phone, because I have a reason to, the cheap reward of three likes on my social media post still gives me a little thrill, but I no longer go looking for them by refreshing my feed twenty minutes after I posted. I want to learn to control my phone, rather than let it control me As I navigate healthier phone use, I won't condemn myself for watching funny videos of cats or stop playing online chess. I only want to end the mindless checking — the things that, when I am finished, make me feel stupid and sad. I didn't walk away from the pressures of the law office to replace them with pressure from my phone. I aspire to a retirement of simple tasks and quiet days. It's a vision that no one ever achieves in this day and age, but for now, I won't allow that fantasy to be destroyed by my own behaviour and a tiny screen inside my pocket.
India.com
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
Meet actress, who became a star 24 years ago, one mistake ruined her career, quit Bollywood to become a monk, name is..., Aamir Khan was her...
Meet actress, who became a star 24 years ago, one mistake ruined her career, quit Bollywood to become a monk, name is..., Aamir Khan was her... Gracy Singh, best known for Lagaan , was one of the most popular names in Bollywood. She collaborated with many stars such as Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, and Amitabh Bachchan. She began her acting career with 1997 television serial Amanat . Later, in 2001, she ventured into films and gave a breakthrough performance in Ashutosh Gowariker's L agaan: Once Upon a Time in India. The film was written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, and bankrolled by Aamir Khan. The film was a blockbuster and became the third Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language category, after Mother India and Salaam Bombay. Gracy's sweet and innocent portrayal was widely appreciated alongside Aamir Khan. Moreover, Lagaan had 8 wins, and became the most-awarded film at the 47th Filmfare Awards. Thereafter, Gracy Singh starred in superhit films like Munna Bhai MBBS and Gangaajal. Despite receiving immense love from the audiences, she couldn't build a stardom for herself. The biggest mistake of her career was starring in KRK's Deshdrohi, which failed to impress fans and turned out to be a biggest box office disaster. After giving consecutive flops in Bollywood, Grace started acting in Tamil, Telugu Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Bengali films. She couldn't experience success there either. In 2013, Gracy joined Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. She became quite involved in their religious rules and started participating in all the events. Once in an interview, she expressed how she felt after joining Brahmakumari and said, 'I experienced boundless safety, peace, joy, understanding, acceptance, and cooperation. I met people from all over the world who were humble, kind, and understanding here (Brahmakumari World Spiritual University).' Gracy made her last on-screen appearance in the 2020 with the TV serial 'Santoshi Maa – Sunayein Vrat Kathayein, which was a sequel to the show Santoshi Maa. Bankrolled by Rashmi Sharma and Pawan Kumar Marut under Rashmi Sharma Telefilms, the mythological series was premiered on January 28, 2020, and was also available for streaming on ZEE5.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Alan Bergman dies at 99 after legendary songwriting career with Marilyn Bergman
Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist known for his decades-long partnership with his wife Marilyn Bergman, died Thursday night at the age of 99. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he passed away from natural causes at his Los Angeles home, as confirmed by his daughter, producer Julie Bergman Sender. Together, Alan and Marilyn Bergman formed one of the most successful songwriting teams in film history. Their lyrical collaborations spanned more than 50 years and included timeless classics such as 'The Way We Were,' 'The Windmills of Your Mind,' and 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers.' Marilyn Bergman died in January 2022 at the age of 93. The Bergmans were frequent collaborators with Barbra Streisand, composer Michel Legrand, and Marvin Hamlisch. They earned three Academy Awards: for 'The Way We Were' (1973), 'The Windmills of Your Mind' (1968), and the score for Yentl (1983). They were also nominated 16 times across their careers, earning recognition for songs featured in The Thomas Crown Affair, Same Time, Next Year, The Happy Ending, and Sometimes a Great Notion, among others. Their influence extended to television as well, writing theme songs for shows such as Maude, Good Times, Alice, and Brooklyn Bridge. The duo also received three Emmy Awards and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980. Alan was born in Brooklyn on September 11, 1925, and served in World War II before pursuing music and theater at the University of North Carolina and later UCLA. Early in his career, he worked as a TV director at CBS in Philadelphia, where he met legendary songwriter Johnny Mercer, who encouraged him to write lyrics. Alan and Marilyn met in 1956, marrying two years later. Their first collaborations included work with Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra. In addition to his daughter Julie, Alan Bergman is survived by his granddaughter, Emily.
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Celebrities Who Survived Terrifying Brushes With Death
Seth MacFarlane narrowly avoided dying on 9/11 when he missed his scheduled flight — American Airlines Flight 11 — after arriving late to the airport due to a hangover. That same plane was later hijacked and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. In 2009, MacFarlane told Howard Stern that while it did rattle him for a few weeks after, he doesn't think of it much because he isn't "much of a fate guy." Like MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg had also originally been booked on American Airlines Flight 11 (which was a Boston to Los Angeles flight). However, he changed his plans last minute, opting to fly to Toronto for a film festival instead. In 2012, he faced backlash for saying in an interview with Men's Journal that, "If I were on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did." Wahlberg later apologized for the statement. In 1961, Elizabeth Taylor came dangerously close to death after a severe bout of pneumonia. In the 2024 documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, Taylor said that after being rushed to a London hospital, doctors performed an 18-hour emergency tracheotomy, but that during the procedure, she was declared dead, saying, "Actually four times I was called dead, and stopped breathing." Taylor, of course, pulled through and a month and a half later won her first Oscar for Best Actress. She attended the Academy Awards and proudly displayed her tracheotomy scar. Though she felt the win was because of sympathy, saying, "Butterfield 8 was my fourth nomination in a row, and I won the award for my tracheotomy." Isla Fisher had a terrifying near-death experience while filming Now You See Me when a stunt went wrong. While performing an underwater escape scene, she became trapped after her feet got caught, and she was unable to surface. The crew initially thought she was acting, as she was supposed to be struggling, unaware that she was genuinely struggling. She was freed after a stunt coordinator realized her feet were stuck, and he pulled the water quick-release switch from the tank. The moment that it happened is in the final cut of the movie. After giving birth in 2017, Serena Williams faced life-threatening complications that put her health in serious jeopardy. She developed a pulmonary embolism — a dangerous blood clot in her lung. The coughing from the embolism caused her C-section wound to pop open, which led her into surgery, where the doctors discovered she had a hematoma (a localized swelling of blood outside blood vessels) in her abdomen. Williams ended up having to stay six weeks in bed as part of her recovery. While filming Cast Away, Tom Hanks suffered a cut to his leg that led to a serious staph infection. In 2009, Hanks told the BBC that he didn't know he had an infection and just thought his leg was sore. He went to the doctor, who told him, "I have to put you in the hospital because we have to get this infection out of you before it poisons your blood and you die." He ended up staying three days in the hospital, while production shut down for three weeks to allow for his skin to heal. In 2021, Brooke Shields experienced a serious accident when she fell and broke her femur while exercising at the gym. The injury led her to have two surgeries (with rods and a metal plate inserted into her). During her recovery, she developed a very serious staph infection at the site of the injury. Her doctors feared that the infection was caused by a type of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics, which could have put her at risk of sepsis, a life-threatening response to an infection that can cause organ failure. Luckily for Shields, it turned out not to be that type of bacteria. While riding his motorcycle to the set of his Hulu series Catch-22 in Sardinia, Italy, in 2018, George Clooney was involved in a serious accident that sent him flying through the air after colliding with a car. According to the local paper, La Nuova Sardegna, he was taken to the hospital with a "slight trauma to the pelvis and bruises to one leg and an arm." He later revealed that doctors told him it was a miracle he wasn't paralyzed or killed. In a 2021 interview with the Sunday Times, Clooney said he thought he was going to die, saying, "I was waiting for my switch to turn off." In 2020, Simon Cowell broke his back in multiple places after crashing an electric bike at his home in Malibu. Doctors said he narrowly avoided severing his spinal cord, which could have left him paralyzed. He underwent a six-hour surgery to repair the damage, during which metal rods were inserted into his back. Cowell said of the accident, "That it was worse than people thought," and that he was "Lucky to be alive." When she was 5 years old, Jennifer Aniston accidentally fell into the pool while riding her tricycle, which she didn't let go of, and sank her to the bottom of the pool. Her brother saw it happen and dove in to save her. The incident left her with a lifelong phobia of being submerged underwater. While filming her movie Cake, she was forced to confront it while filming a pool scene. During the filming of the 1981 movie Modern Problems, Chevy Chase was accidentally electrocuted on set when he was filming a dream sequence where he was wearing a suit made of lights. The shock caused him to lose consciousness temporarily, and reportedly, he has experienced lingering health issues as a result. In 2010, Pink narrowly avoided a catastrophic injury when a harness malfunctioned during an aerial stunt during a concert in Nuremberg, Germany. She was dragged violently off the stage and slammed into a stage barrier. Luckily, she wasn't seriously injured, and she later tweeted, "Nothing's broken, no fluid in the lungs, just seriously sore." And lastly, in 2008, Travis Barker survived a devastating plane crash that claimed the lives of four people. He suffered third-degree burns over much of his body and struggled with PTSD in the years that followed. Traumatized by the experience, he avoided flying for over a decade, only stepping onto a plane again in 2021 because of the support of his wife, Kourtney Kardashian Barker.
News18
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Mattel And Illumination Join Hands To Produce Barbie Animated Movie For Theatres
This news came after director Greta Gerwig's 2023 Barbie movie, featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, turned out to be a massive hit. Two years after Margot Robbie's widely acclaimed live-action Barbie became a global hit at the box office, Mattel is reportedly in talks to produce the first-ever animated movie for the big screen. Previously, the iconic doll has appeared in 52 animated movies and streaming TV films since 2001 but has not yet been released to the big screen. As per Deadline, Mattel is joining hands with Illumination, the studio behind the Minions franchise, to produce the first-ever Barbie animated film for the theatres. However, representatives of both Mattel and Illumination have refrained from commenting on this report and have made no official statement so far. Deadline reports that the film will be released by Universal Pictures, which has an exclusive financing and distribution partnership with Illumination. No further details regarding the plot or creatives attached to the film have been revealed so far. This news came after director Greta Gerwig's 2023 Barbie movie, featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, turned out to be a massive hit. The film made historic waves at the box office, grossing over $1.3 billion at the global box office and becoming the highest-earning theatrical release of Warner Bros. Greta Gerwig's Barbie has also become the highest-grossing film helmed by a woman and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since 1959, Barbie has held down its position as the global category leader in dolls, with more than 100 dolls sold every minute, as per Deadline. Barbie's large scale influenced Mattel to produce more and more Barbie movies. Mattel Studios has reportedly two films slated for release in 2026 – a live-action Masters of the Universe, set to be released by Amazon MGM Studios, and a live-action Matchbox produced alongside Skydance and Apple. Chris Meledandri's Illumination has two films up for release through Universal Pictures. A sequel to the blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is scheduled to release on April 3, 2026, and Nintendo and Minions 3, which is set to hit the theatres on July 1, 2026. First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
