Technologies

Your Phone Should Always Be Facedown When It’s on the Table: Here’s Why

You have three good reasons to keep your phone screen hidden if you’re not using it.

Picture this: You’re having lunch with a friend at the neighborhood cafe. They’re sitting in front of you, but it feels like they’re not even there. Why? Because they’re staring at their phone. Everyone has probably had a similar experience, whether they’re the one getting phone snubbed or doing the snubbing themselves.

I’ve been guilty of paying more attention to my screen than my companion, and I feel bad about it afterward. There’s nothing wrong with replying to an urgent Slack message or pulling up a funny TikTok to share. But I know I probably spend too much time staring at screens, and a lot of that time is unhealthy doomscrolling. These days, when I’m not using my phone, I try to be more deliberate about keeping it out of sight and out of mind. If I do need to keep my phone at hand, I always have it facedown.

It could help save your phone battery

I have a few reasons for making sure my phone screen is turned away. The first one is practical: Because my screen is facedown and won’t turn on for each notification, I can save a little bit of battery charge.

A single notification won’t mean the difference between my phone lasting the whole day or dying in the afternoon, but notifications can add up, especially if I’ve enabled them across all of my apps. If I’m in a lot of group chats, my screen might end up turning on dozens of times throughout the day (and that’s on the low side since many teenagers have hundreds of notifications a day).

It also shows that you pay attention

Keeping my phone facedown is also a good rule of social etiquette: If I’m hanging out with someone, I keep my screen hidden from view as a subtle way of showing that I won’t be distracted by it. I don’t want incoming notifications to light up my screen every few seconds, especially if I’m in a bar or other dimly lit setting. I want to keep my eyes on the person I’m talking to.

«Eye contact is one of the most powerful forms of human connection. Neuroscience research indicates that when two people make direct eye contact, their brain activity begins to synchronize, supporting more effective communication and increasing empathy. This synchrony can be disrupted when attention shifts to a phone, even briefly,» says Michelle Davis, clinical psychologist at Headspace.

When I’m with the people I’ve chosen to spend time with, I want to be fully present with them. A sudden notification will tempt me to glance at, or worse, pick up my phone in the middle of a conversation.

It minimizes your phone’s presence

I also have a more personal reason for keeping my phone facedown, and I suspect that other people have had this same thought: My phone takes up too much space in my life. I mean that quite literally. My phone is bigger than it needs to be. That’s been especially true since I upgraded from my iPhone Mini to a «normal-sized» iPhone. Yes, I got a much needed boost in battery life, but I also got a screen with more pixels to lure me into the next news headline or autoplaying Instagram reel.

A small smartphone isn’t something that really exists anymore. My phone is bigger and better at grabbing my attention. It competes against my friends and family, books and movies, the entire world outside of its 6-inch screen. It often wins. But there’s still one small thing I can do to minimize its presence: I can keep the screen turned away from me whenever possible.

It can sometimes feel like there’s no escaping from my phone. Whether that ever changes, or phones evolve into a new form factor, I can’t say. I can’t control everything about my phone, but I can control whether the screen stares at me when I’m not staring at it.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, June 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword was a tough one for me! I struggled with 7-Across and 3-Down especially. Need some help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Feeling extremely happy
Answer: JOYFUL

7A clue: Wake from sleep
Answer: AROUSE

8A clue: Brand of cinnamon-flavored chewing gum
Answer: BIGRED

9A clue: Talk and talk and talk
Answer: GAB

10A clue: Bengal, colt or dolphin
Answer: ANIMAL

13A clue: TV show ending
Answer: FINALE

14A clue: Rook, to a chess newbie
Answer: CASTLE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Quick boxing punch
Answer: JAB

2D clue: Beginnings
Answer: ORIGINS

3D clue: Where you might strike a pose?
Answer: YOGAMAT

4D clue: Nickname for a fuzzy cat
Answer: FURBALL

5D clue: One of many for white vinegar
Answer: USE

6D clue: Was winning
Answer: LED

10D clue: The Bengals, Colts and Dolphins play in it: Abbr
Answer: AFC

11D clue: ___ DaCosta, director of 2023’s «The Marvels»
Answer: NIA

12D clue: Harper who wrote «To Kill a Mockingbird»
Answer: LEE

Technologies

China and Developing Nations Trust AI the Most, UN Survey Finds

In the US and Europe, confidence in artificial intelligence is far lower.

Artificial intelligence may be a global technology, but public attitudes toward it are anything but universal. A new United Nations poll shows that trust in AI is highest in China and other developing economies, while richer nations remain deeply skeptical.

The findings come from a massive UN Development Programme survey that interviewed more than 21,000 people across 21 countries between November 2024 and January 2025. Researchers asked participants if they believe AI «serves the best interests of society,» and whether governments can harness the technology to improve daily life.

According to Bloomberg, 83% of participants in China said they trust AI, by far the highest share in the study, Confidence levels were above 60% in Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, nations that do not belong to the UN’s very-high Human Development Index bracket, a yardstick for gauging overall well-being in a country.

The picture is the opposite in high-HDI economies. A minority of adults in the United States, Germany, Australia and Greece expressed faith that AI is being used for the common good. One notable exception is Japan, where 65% trust AI, despite the country’s high income and aging population.

The UN researchers don’t spell out why this gap exists, but other research hints at a pattern. In fast-growing economies, AI is widely promoted as a way to «skip steps» in development, perhaps filling in gaps in health care and classrooms, so the technology is viewed as a practical fix. In wealthier, more developed countries, headlines about disinformation and AI-driven job displacement dominate the conversation, leading to public unease.

Technologies

iPhone 20 Rumors Point to All-Glass ‘Waterfall’ Screen and Anniversary-Inspired Name

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple may skip «iPhone 19» altogether and deliver a 20th-anniversary handset whose display curves over all four edges, erasing traditional bezels.

If Apple really wants to make a splash for the iPhone’s 20th birthday in 2027, it may do more than just redesign the camera bump.

Apple’s engineers are prototyping an iPhone internally nicknamed «Glass Wing,» according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, speaking on the Geared Up podcast this week, with a display that flows like a waterfall not only down the left and right sides, but also over the top and bottom of the phone.

Gurman called it the «iPhone X design but on steroids,» and said that this is the phone that iOS 26 was designed for.

A foldable is expected to release at the end of 2026.

Gurman also floated the idea that Apple could brand the device the «iPhone 20,» sidestepping an «iPhone 19» to sync the model number with the anniversary year. A quad-curved, bezel-free screen would mark the iPhone’s most dramatic hardware overhaul since the iPhone X killed the Home button in 2017.

Reports out of South Korea’s ETNews say Apple is exploring «four-edge bending» OLED tech to make that borderless look possible, while Gurman’s Power On newsletter describes a «mostly glass, curved iPhone without any cutouts in the display,» hinting that the selfie camera and Face ID sensors could hide under the display.

If Apple really does jump straight to an iPhone 20, the rename would echo this year’s jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26 and 2017’s leap from the iPhone 8 to the iPhone X, signaling just how big a redesign Apple thinks this phone will be.