Creative inspiration comes from many sources. Including our phones and tablets.
However, our phones are getting a lot of bad publicity at the moment. This seemed to have reached it’s peak in late 2025. By then, social media and YouTube was flooded with influencers, making almost identical points. We need to limit our screen time to 10-15-minutes a day, etc. We also need to remove social media from our devices, as it wastes our time and makes us doom scroll.
Interestingly, they’re pumping their message out on the time-wasting, productivity-destroying, doom-filled platforms they’re telling us to delete or largely ignore.
I know. The irony.
Here’s the thing: As creatives, we rely on consumption for our production. We need creative inputs, to inspire creative outputs. It’s what people do every time we read a book (a consumption device) and find something helpful in it that we can use.
The key here, as with everything, is balance. We all know people who seem to spend too much time looking at a screen. And there certainly is a lot to be gained if those who over do it, reduce their screen time significantly. Especially children below a certain age, and anyone who consume material that makes them feel anxious or lowers their self-esteem.
But for those of us who want to enhance our creativity, our phones are extremely useful. For example, this article is being written on my phone. At least half the articles on this site were either written, researched, or both written an researched on a phone. I also use my phone to capture ideas using its voice recorder, camera and notes app. I use social media to share useful information, and to identify common challenges, which I may be able to write a useful article about.
General advice is exactly that. General.
If your experience and productivity from your phone usage is positive and it’s not causing you to be anxious or feel bad about yourself, you’ve probably got the balance right… for you.
Photo: Tony Schnagl from Pexels: