[Photo provided to China Daily]

It's been quite some time since I last fell a sleep without my smartphone at my bedside and didn't check WeChat first thing in the morning.

Some experts say it's unhealthy－an addiction no less-and for many it's a habit that is fiendishly difficult to kick. In fact, for those working in the media doing so is also out of the question, because most of our communication is done through numerous WeChat work groups, and they never go to sleep.

The smartphone is where I and many of my colleagues get most of our information. In fact that is beginning to apply to the public at large, too. It's increasingly difficult to be the first to know, but we are intent on ensuring that we are not the last to know. Keeping an eye and an ear out for news alerts and frequently refreshing news in apps for breaking news has become the norm.

And as work groups and friends circles on WeChat merge, the line between work and life beyond it becomes evermore blurred.

During the day you may open your app to see if there is a new assignment but end up reading friends' posts, ranging from the humdrum to the hilarious. In the evening as you settle into a comfortable chair or sofa for a bit of light reading, your relaxation is likely to be broken with messages punctuated by the@sign that scream out for a quick reply.

Refreshing my friends circle page as I wrote this article over the weekend, the first post to pop up read:"10 media workers, all in their 40s, died within 60 days". The post seemed well-meaning enough, to encourage those reading it to find a better work-life balance, even if the figures and the logic were askew.