When the pandemic pushed work and social life onto screens, it also accelerated a quieter problem: people are now spending more hours than ever glued to their devices, and the side effects are piling up. According to firstpost.com, scholar and entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa, co-author of the 2018 book *Your Happiness Has Been Hacked*, says the COVID-19 era has made users even more tethered to their phones, laptops and TVs, with knock-on effects for mental health, productivity and the information they consume.
Wadhwa is a fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering. He has spent years studying how attention-grabbing design choices in the technology industry keep people hooked, and he argues the cost is rising fast.
Quick take:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more daily activity onto screens, deepening dependence on devices.
- Vivek Wadhwa, co-author of a 2018 book on digital well-being, says the problem is now an addiction and misinformation crisis.
- Wadhwa receives roughly 300 to 400 emails a day and answers roughly half, illustrating the volume users now manage.
- He recommends auditing apps, setting rules of use and mastering Do Not Disturb to cut stress by 80 to 90 percent.
- Cheap smartphones and data plans in India have put high-engagement platforms in the hands of users less equipped to spot misinformation.
How we got here: from awareness to addiction
Concerns about manipulative design in the technology industry predate the pandemic. In 2018, Wadhwa and Salkever framed the issue for a mainstream audience with *Your Happiness Has Been Hacked*, one of the early popular books arguing that platform design targets the brain's reward systems. At the time, conversations about Facebook's privacy practices and election interference were just starting.
Then COVID-19 hit. Office meetings, classrooms, social catch-ups and even medical consultations moved online. Screen time climbed and never fully retreated. Wadhwa's point is that the same notification-heavy, infinite-feed architecture was waiting for users the moment they arrived, turning a temporary shift into a sustained habit.
Cheaper smartphones and mobile plans made this worse in markets like India. Where once only educated middle-class users could afford constant connectivity, now users across income levels are online, and many are not equipped to separate misinformation from genuine information.
What changed now: more dependence, more misreads
Wadhwa's view, as reported, is blunt: people are more addicted to technology than ever before. The combination of longer hours, more apps and aggressive notification systems has created what he describes as "a pandemic of misinformation, fear and addiction." He also argues that social platforms are polarizing societies, including in India, by pushing users into fragmented information bubbles.
The numbers he shares about his own inbox tell us something about the broader scale. He says he receives about 300 to 400 emails a day and replies to roughly half, a workload that still consumes three to four hours of his day. Most readers will not match that volume, but the underlying pattern — constant pings, mental fatigue, reactive answering — is widely shared.
Wadhwa himself admits the pull. He installed WhatsApp a year before the interview, uninstalled it twice, then gave up and now manages the app by ignoring most messages. His WhatsApp bio tells them he rarely uses it and prefers email. That small concession is a useful illustration of how hard digital disengagement is even for people who study the problem professionally.
Our analysis: what this means for you
For spamachine.com readers, the takeaway is not just about productivity. Persistent connectivity changes your threat surface too. The same attention-capture mechanics that keep you scrolling also deliver phishing links, smishing attempts, scam DMs and push notifications impersonating banks or delivery services. When you are checking your phone 100 times out of urgency rather than intent, you are more likely to tap the wrong link.
There is a real trade-off here. Aggressive notification control and Do Not Disturb reduce interruptions, but they can also hide legitimate security alerts from your bank or authenticator. Wadhwa's advice still applies, just with one tweak: build a small set of times you actively check those critical apps, instead of letting them ping you all day. The goal is to choose when you engage, not to go dark on everything.
Who gains when you reclaim control? You do. Platforms that monetize your attention lose. So do the spammers and scammers who rely on hurried, distracted clicks.
A scenario you can try today
Say you get a text that looks like a FedEx delivery notice asking you to confirm a shipping fee. Under normal circumstances you might tap it in a rush. Try this instead. Audit your apps and uninstall anything you have not opened in a month. Turn off notifications for everything except calls, messages and two-factor authentication prompts. Schedule two short windows — say 10 minutes after lunch and 10 minutes before dinner — to clear the rest. If a "delivery" message cannot sit in that window, that itself is a useful signal.
What to watch next
The bigger story to follow is whether regulators and platform owners take meaningful steps to limit addictive design, or whether users are expected to keep solving it on their own. In the meantime, the practical case is straightforward: your attention is the product, and it is also your first line of defense against spam, phishing and misinformation. Wadhwa's prescription — audit your apps, set rules, master Do Not Disturb — is not a wellness flourish. It is basic operational hygiene for anyone who lives online.
Bottom line: the pandemic made screen time unavoidable. Letting it also make you careless is a choice, and a cheap one to reverse.
Key takeaways
- Treat notification control as a security feature, not just a productivity one; spammers and phishers benefit most from reactive tapping.
- Audit your phone, uninstall what you do not use and whitelist only calls, messages and security prompts for notifications.
- Schedule fixed windows for email and socials to replace constant reactive checking.
- Expect a continued flood of scam messages and misinformation; design choices, not user error, are the root cause.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Vivek Wadhwa and why is he relevant to digital well-being?
He is a scholar and entrepreneur, fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, and co-author of the 2018 book *Your Happiness Has Been Hacked*, one of the early mainstream books framing tech design as addictive.
What does the pandemic have to do with tech addiction?
COVID-19 moved work, school and social contact onto screens, lengthening daily device time and giving attention-capturing apps many more opportunities to engage with new and existing users.
What practical steps does Wadhwa recommend?
He suggests auditing each app and removing any you can do without, setting rules for when and how you use what remains, and turning on Do Not Disturb to silence notifications, especially in the hours before bed.
How does this connect to spam and scam protection?
Hurried, distracted phone use increases the odds of tapping phishing links, smishing texts and scam DMs. Reducing reactive notifications and checking apps on your own schedule lowers that risk.
Is the problem worse in some countries?
Wadhwa points to India specifically, where cheaper smartphones and data plans have brought high-engagement platforms to users who may be less equipped to tell misinformation from reliable information.