Sunsets, supermoons and cold hard cash: 50 things you miss while staring at your phone

The average British child spends 44 hours – almost two days – staring at screens every week, a study claims. That is double the figure for Japanese kids and puts Britain second to last out of 30 countries in terms of “disciplined digital use”.

Obviously, there are many dangers associated with excessive screen time, but the real tragedy is what you are missing.

Here, then, kids, are 50 things you might not see because you are too busy looking at your phone.

• The sunset.

• A full moon.

• A supermoon.

• Lightning striking.

• Lightning striking again.

• Oncoming cars.

• The end of the escalator.

• A passing horse.

• The first, freakishly early, daffodils of the year.

• People slipping and falling on ice.

• The exact point when your haircut started to go awry.

• Sunlight shimmering on the river.

• A spider’s web.

• A £20 note.

• People on their phones walking into lamp-posts.

• Lamp-posts.

• Someone cooking naked in the building across the street.

• The basic plot of any TV show with subtitles.

• Blossom trees in full bloom.

• Seagulls being whipped around in the wind.

• A squirrel methodically destroying a bird feeder.

• A fox and a crow fighting over a Happy Meal.

• A perfectly serviceable bicycle, if only you could figure out how to get it out of the canal.

• Fireworks.

• Snow.

• Your hollow, dead eyes in a mirror you slouch past.

• A man handing out free coffee.

• An old acquaintance.

• The state of your nails.

• Hundreds of eye-level reminders that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching.

• New graffiti.

• Pop-up shops.

• An upholstered stool flying out of a pub door at three in the afternoon.

• Someone attractive smiling at you.

• Someone weird who, had you been paying attention, you might not have sat down next to.

• The stuff the person in front of you is looking at on their phone.

• Anyone elderly or pregnant who might need your seat.

• The judgmental looks of other public-transport users.

• Your stop.

• Lunch.

• Vital last-minute instructions from your sky-diving instructor.

• Any storm-blown debris that might be heading your way.

• The bit where the train crosses the Tamar into Cornwall.

• A celebrity buying bedsheets.

• Your dog, who has been staring at you balefully for an hour.

• Your cat, doing something cute.

• The food on your plate.

• Other potential content for your Instagram Stories.

• How stupid everyone else in your family looks staring down at their phones.

• Sleep.