The Walker: I have to ask my wife for the internet password. Every time.

The only sensible way for the Walker to protect himself from the internet, he writes, was to put his digital life in his wife’s hands. Even grown men, it turns out, may need screen time managed like children.

At 10 p.m., after waiting an hour for him to finish on his computer, his wife asks whether she should assume there will be no television that night. He had once again started with a “quick thing” he wanted to check. Once he enters the information highway, he says, finding an exit is difficult.

He has tried to reduce his phone use. In his case, he estimates that 98 percent of the time spent on the phone could have gone to better purposes. A T9 phone that could do little beyond texting might solve the problem, but using one would be inconvenient and could make him look like a grumpy man imposing his principles on everyone around him.

“

Should I assume there will be no television tonight?

The phone’s screen-time tools offered no real barrier. He could set a 10-minute daily limit for the browser and social-media apps, but the phone only displayed a small box he could quickly dismiss. His repeated choice was to ask for 15 more minutes and keep going.

So he required a password to use the apps, with only his wife knowing it. Every day, he must interrupt her with the embarrassed question, “Can you type in the password?” The system works only when they are together. Even checking a product at Clas Ohlson requires her to send the password, which then has to be changed so his screen time does not rapidly expand from one hour to three. Soon, he jokes, she will run out of number combinations. Sitting at his computer, he is now doing the same things he does on his phone.

“

Can you type in the password?