Few days ago, in one of hives community, we discussed about addiction, of which most of the writeups I read discussed phone as one of the few things people are addicted too, but many do not really see it as what it is. In our world today, phone has become one of the biggest addiction that has quietly made it's way us. Be it in the school, market places, worship centres and the likes, you will definitely find people so glued and focused on their phones. And I must add that no single person is left out, either old, male, young, female.
One morning like that, that was few years ago. I have been doing it for a while, but on that particular day, I noticed and called myself back to attention. What happened was that I woke up and without even thinking about anything, I just reached out to my phone. It wasn't as if my phone rang or anything, I just picked it up, unlocked it and began to press and scroll. I didn't pray, I didn't do exercise, I go out to greet my parents. I was just busy indoor, on my bed, scrolling. By the time I called myself back to attention and noticed, it was after about two hours, time had gone, I couldn't even pray anymore, I just rushed my preparations as I was already late for where I was supposed to be.
But then, When I got home that evening, I made sure to reflect on myself once again, I thought about it and saw how long it has been that my phone has become my first go-to each and everytime. So, I began to caution myself. One of the things I do, is to set a timer for my phone to go off and come on by itself each and everyday. I intentionally sets it to come on in the morning by the hour of 9am. I did that because, I know I would have woken up long before then, so that even if I wake and by mistake decide to go for my phone it would be off, and I will remember why, which is to make sure I pray, do the needful and then put it on myself when I'm done. That way, I'm able to do what's expected of me and reduce my screen time.
Also, there's this thing I do do on my WhatsApp status, and there was a time like that I talked about this on my status. So, I'm supposed to follow and abide with that which even I have addressed in others. There was a day where I visited a friend of mine, he was the one who asked me to come by, but then, after he has greeted and we exchanged pleasantries, the next thing he does was to pick up his phone and began to type, press, scroll, laugh and all. I felt so bad, but then I remembered that used to be me as well, and how I felt now was how others do feel when they talk to me as well. I felt like I can't compete with attention between him and his phone.
I will admit there was a time I was addicted to my phone as well. I'm still fighting it though, for the past few weeks now, though I relocated, but then I don't want to use it as an excuse, my phone has been my companion, I'm always on it 24/7. The world we find ourselves today is one that has helped placed almost every of our lives inside that small rectangular shaped device called a phone. You can order food from your phone, reach your drycleaner, call for housecleaning, reach out to friends, call family members, see trending news, watch movies, listen to music and all. And now, it seems as if we've lost some real moments of life because we are so busy chasing the digital one.
So, what do I do, I set a schedule for my phone to go on and off, I make sure to pray when I wake up, do certain things and be sure I'm really free to go back to my phone, I set screen limits for my phone, I turn off certain notifications for a period of hours before putting them back on, there are times I put my phone on airplane mode, but then I was told it isn't that good, as there could possibly be emergencies and such, I also began to converse more with people one on one rather than chatting over phones. And I can't deny the fact that it's been working.
Phone addiction is real, very very real. And I can tell you for free that the phone has no power of it's own to control is, unless we allow it too. It's because we've allowed it too, that's why it has become an issue for some of us when our phone goes off, or when we are out of subscription and the likes. So, it's time we stand up and take back our time for ourselves.
Second image is a screenshot of my WhatsApp status.
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