iPhone Designer Jonathan Ive Criticizes 'Constant Use' Of His Apple Creation

If you have an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter, then you’re probably one of the 77 percent of American adults who finds themselves fighting the urge to check their email or the latest news or sports stat regularly.

The number of adults with smartphones is increasing worldwide, including in the United States where 46 percent of smartphone owners surveyed in 2014 said they “couldn’t live without it,” according to a Pew Research survey.

The man who helped create the iPhone knows how addictive the technology can be. At New Yorker TechFest on Friday, Apple Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive said, “Like any tool, you can see there's wonderful use and then there's misuse,” about his creation. He then classified “misuse” as “constant use.”

When asked how he gets around this, he said his Apple Watch helps. Dave Remnick who was interviewing Ive at the event called him out on the promotion, saying “That was beautifully done,” about the nearly seamless plug for the watch. Ive joked before explaining that “This isn't a new phenomenon that we have to exercise a modicum of self-control to try and find the right balance,” he said in reference to balancing smartphone use. He went on to say, “I do think sometimes, it's just nice to have space. I think we fill space because we can and not because we should,” according to a transcription of the event on Apple Insider.

Whether or not a watch that gives text alerts, news and fitness tracking updates is a way around the constant use of smartphone technology is still a bit questionable, even if it works for Ive. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, has also slipped his Apple Watch use into interviews before, saying he uses the breathing exercises in the app regularly. While the watch product is smaller and perhaps easier to ignore or use less frequently, it's still just another way to integrate the smartphone features into regular life. Smartphone technology has permeated the lives of users so much that in 2014, 38 percent of users thought it was “generally ok” to use their smartphone at a restaurant, and 12 percent thought it was ok to use it at family dinner.

Ive didn’t classify exactly what constitutes misused or constant use but it’s probably safe to guess that many smartphone users would be put into this category of user. But whether or not these users see their smartphone use as “misuse” is unknown. A Pew study shows that in 2014, 70 percent of smartphone owners saw their phone as “freedom” rather than as a “leash.”

Of the same group of people, 72 percent of people said that they saw their phones as something “connecting” rather than something “distracting.”