Opportunity Cost of Thought

By Jacob C. Maichel

Opportunity cost is one of the most fundamental concepts in economics. Opportunity cost can be thought of the next best alternative to a given choice. Resources such as money, production inputs, and time are scarce. So when we decide to spend our time and money to go a movie instead of staying home and enjoying a book, our opportunity cost is the book we have foregone reading. Once that time and money is gone it cannot be spent again. 

So why is opportunity cost so important in economics and life? Limited by scarcity of resources we have to find ways to satiate our unlimited desires. Opportunity cost not only helps allocate resources but also can give insight into peoples values. The choices we make reveal our preferences. Recently, I have begun to fully understand how encompassing opportunity cost truly is. Every second we make decisions with our time and our thoughts. While reflecting on my relationship with technology (check out my post about limbic capitalism) I have began to really question my relationship with my phone. This brings me to the point of this blog; the opportunity cost of thought.

We in the United States and beyond have become attached to our phones. This attachment is so deeply ingrained that 44% of people sleep with their phone, and unfortunately I am one of them. Not surprisingly younger people (ages 18-24) are typically the most attached to their phone.

What is even more alarming to me is the fact that 81% of those ages18-24 check their phones even if they do not hear an alert. When we sit and constantly think about the next update, what are giving up? Could we think about a new business? Some deep question that has been troubling us? Perhaps we would be able to engage with the stranger next to us rather than standing awkwardly scrolling through forgettable posts. 

Phones help to dull our mind and remove us from the real world. Books were not only a source of knowledge; they were a form of escape from the daily grind. With this in mind I don't think it's a stretch to say that reading books is more mentally productive than social media. Over seventy-five percent of internet users are social media users - all of whom may be sacrificing productive thoughts. While not all social media consumption is negative, is it still more beneficial than the real world?

Another concern is whether social media itself is a disincentive to conversations. Major social media platforms have become a crutch for getting to know people, which is not a bad thing in and of itself. The danger comes when these platforms create incentives to predominately socialize virtually. Personally, I find myself checking on my friends less and less as I see their continual updates on social media. I think I know how people are doing and what they have been up to, but the truth is we have a tendency to present only the good parts of our lives on social media. This can give our friends a false confidence in our well-being. It is ironic that statuses are meant to create conversations but could be doing the exact opposite. It appears the more connected we get, the more alone we feel.

The most troubling thing to me, however, is what we give up in our meaningful relationships with other people. People use their phones during conversations in real life, hide texting during class, complain about their phone being dead or not around every day. These new norms have transformed interactions with not only strangers but the most familiar people in our lives. An example of this is the family who all sit on their phone during dinner, or perhaps the parent who watches their phone throughout their child's soccer game. These actions would have been not only unthinkable but socially odd in the not-too-distant past.

Actions speak louder than words. Many people wouldn't say that they value their phone over other people close to them, but it happens everyday. It is hard to completely remove yourself from someone you care about but marginally distancing yourself from others in social settings can have real world impacts. Why is it so easy to pay so much attention to our phone and make us struggle to forget it in daily conversations? Even car rides with family and friends are precious moments that mean more with undivided attention. If actions highlight our individual preferences we should start to realize what it means when we snap chat and text through our real world conversations. 

We have to allocate our scarce time on this Earth with the people we are blessed to share it with and I think we take it for granted. Delusions caused by technology have hampered our ability to analyze the costs of neglecting our relationships, promoted by technology that preys on our attention. While this doesn't mean that we all need to ditch our phones, maybe forgetting it at home is a good thing. Time truly is the most non-renewable resource that there is and we need to consider the trade offs of devoting our precious moments to technology.

Jacob C. Maichel is a Graduate Assistant at the Gwartney Institute and an MBA student at Ottawa University