Can dual smartphone usage give people a work-life balance?

People have started to spend excessive amount of time on their phones to consume online content, play games, interact on social media and browse the internet

Smartphones’ significance continues to grow in a digitised world where everything is connected. From utility payments, insurance, home loan EMIs, credit card bills, doctor fees to checking in at the airports, mobile phones are the go-to device to get the job done.

This increasing convenience has some downsides. People have started to spend excessive amount of time on their phones to consume online content, play games, interact on social media and browse the internet. And on top of this, their work-related emails and applications are also set up on their personal devices. Such overlap has increased screen time and stress among people, forcing some to think of an alternative way to navigate through the digital landscape.

One interesting trend is gradual move towards two smartphones that divides work from personal needs. People have started buy a second phone to reduce stress and have more balanced social life. On the other hand, some prefer to stay with a single handset for both personal and professional work. We spoke to a range of mobile device users to understand their preferences and motivation.

School teacher

Nidhi Sehgal, 30, is a kindergarten school teacher who handles 25 students. She says that Covid brought along with it changes to classes are managed. Earlier, we used to get each student on call together but now it has become an individualistic approach. Now, she has a record for each student to make their parents aware about their ward’s daily progress.

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All of this is done over WhatsApp. She is the group admin for the class’s WhatsApp group and shares general updates on the group and separately connects with parents individually about to discuss their child’s performance in class. For these purposes, she has been using a different phone apart from having a personal smartphone. Both are smartphones. The demanding nature of her job doesn’t allow feature phone usage.