The Echidna: Silence is golden in this modern world of ours

Eight hours of screen time. My phone texts me this message on Monday mornings, just when I think I've had absolutely no time on my phone at all.

The phone knows better. On average, I've had eight hours a day. Sure I could make the excuse to others that those eight hours were all work-related but we would all know that's a bloody lie. I try not to lie to myself. Very often. In some respects, my phone keeps me honest. How far I've walked. How many flights of stairs I've climbed. How much money I've spent. Sure my concentration is fractured but at least my phone reminds me of what I have to remember every day.

So now, I have to report with great amazement, high school children in NSW will not have access to their phones during school hours. They will join kids from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, which already have bans in place. Queensland students will face one from next year. The ACT is asking its residents for feedback on a possible ban.

And now, because we are grown ups, we should think about where else those bans could be rolled out (and I write this knowing I would find a ban extremely hard). We could have different levels: no phone at all; phones with their tappity-tap-tap keyboards on silent; phones only for use with headphones for listening; phones only for use with headphones in order to have brief - quiet - conversations. And then, all out, go for your life. Preferably not near anyone else.

Here is my major suggestion for life improvement. Ban mobile phones in: any meeting attended by more than one person. The huge drain on our collective time of the dreaded meeting is made worse by what author Johann Hari calls Stolen Focus, appropriately the name of his book. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone in the meeting is dealing with what I affectionately call Multiple Competing Priorities (MCP). And the meeting, which is meant to be useful, meant to be a collective way of decision-making, turns out to be a palace where it is true, you are all together, but really a million miles away with your thoughts.

It's true that I use my phone to fill in boredom in meetings. When "Paul" starts talking, I immediately switch off him and start doing more useful things, such as paying bills or deleting old emails. Maybe banning mobile phones in meetings might trigger a revolution in procedure! Our boredom would rise up and silence the Pauls of this world!

Also, no mobile phone usage on buses. OK, let me rephrase that. No loud mobile phone usage on all public transport. I do not need to listen to your choice of music. And, absolutely, I do not need to hear you tell your mother that you are ON THE BUS. Also, I know planes are not public transport but surely - surely to God - I do not need to hear AND SEE the final episode of season two, The Bear, on the flight from Sydney to Melbourne. I was three rows back and you've wrecked this genius program for everyone.

Do you know how to use headphones? If not, how did you miss this important lesson for modern life?

Let's use this new rule for school children as a good time to rethink the rules for the rest of us.

HAVE YOUR SAY: (and don't forget that the earlier you email on the topic of the day, the more likely you are to have parts of your contribution published). Where would you like to see mobile phones banned? Why do people walk along the street with their phones at 90 degrees to their heads, shouting loudly? How long can you do without your phone? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Some politicians are giving up their perks. David Pocock is the latest to relinquish membership of the Qantas Chairman's Lounge, along with Virgin's invitation-only Beyond lounges. He follows independent Monique Ryan, and Greens MPs Elizabeth Watson-Brown and Stephen Bates.

- In the only good housing news anywhere in Australia, the number of first-home buyers taking advantage of the federal government's home guarantee scheme grew by nearly 40 per cent in the last financial year, says a new National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) report.

- The Productivity Commission's culture scored an absolute bollocking from a review of the advisory body: sexism, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in abundance. There are 23 recommendations to fix the mess - and incoming chair Danielle Wood plans to implement all of them.

- It's hard to care since they've played so badly but the Wallabies are out of the Rugby World Cup.

THEY SAID IT: "Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful because we're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone." Genius filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

YOU SAID IT: The King is about to make an appearance on our coins. I asked whether both monarchs and cash were useless. Lots of you wrote, mainly with support for cash and mixed feelings about the monarchy.

Heather says: Card payments almost always attract a surcharge. Cash doesn't ... I opposed having the airbrushed de-aged QE11 on our currency, now we are to have KC111 ! Bring on the republic.

John says he very much supports a republic but "I like to use coins still (including donating some to the many homeless I see regularly in the streets of Melbourne CBD)."

Eleanor writes: Some of us still use cash. Also some of us don't want to get rid of the monarchy. I have spoken to my grandchildren ... I have eight, teens and twenties, their opinion is if it means being like the USA, give them royalty anytime.

Christopher says we need cash for unpersoned farmgate sales and for people in utes. "The more important question is - why do we need a head of state at all? We need a rotating chair of cabinet to stop prime ministers getting off on the idea they are presidents and perhaps a citizens review committee to sign off on legislation - if the legislation is constitutional. We do need some balance to bloated egos: humility basking in hubris."

Anita writes "Meghan and Harry are the pick of the bunch as 'thinking royals', if such a thing even exists." And she hasn't used cash since COVID began "when my already extensive card use went into overdrive. Settling the costs of cafe visits with friends is at times problematic, but we survive. Usually, the offer of 'I'll take this; you pay next time' is met with enthusiastic approval. Warning; it requires good recall, but think of it as memory training and you'll be doubly blessed."

Sue asks: "A republic?! If we can't handle the question of the Voice, how are little Australian brains going to handle the questions raised by a republic! Makes me so sad that we are basically incapable of thinking of the big picture without falling prey to misinformation."

Sue B writes: "It seems that politicians are excellent at undermining referendums. I suspect that there won't be an Australian republic in my lifetime."

Deirdre writes: "I used a card for small purchases during COVID but recently reverted to using cash for purchases of around $20 or less as a form of resistance to a cashless society. I know lots of elderly people, some not much older than me, who are not computer literate/can't afford a computer/don't trust online banking/can't hear very well on the phone for whom cash is a necessity."