What’s on Your Home Screen, Farhad Manjoo?
Exploring a very messy screen with the ‘New York Times’ columnist
This is “What’s on Your Home Screen?” a Q&A column from OneZero. We want to understand more about how people use their smartphones—those life-consuming devices we dump hours into every day—to pave a path toward a better future. Or at least a more reflective one. We’ll add new entries regularly, and each will feature a new interview with a notable person about the apps they use, how they’re organized, and whether those red bubbles drive them nuts.
Farhad Manjoo has written about technology for years and currently serves as an opinion columnist at the New York Times. In November, he advised readers to “slow down and be mindful” as they interact with new devices and the companies that control them: sober guidance from a man who knows how to practice discipline with his own gadgets and apps.
Or so you’d think. Here’s the thing: Farhad’s iPhone home screen is a disaster. A mess! It’s glutted with apps, notification bubbles (153 unread messages, according to the screenshot he sent), and the promise, via a series of dots positioned just above the bottom dock, of 16 pages filled with more. Honestly, it made me feel a little sick.
“The number of unread messages, it’s basically…
