Are we smart with our smartphone? (Part 1)

When was the last time you went to restroom without your smartphone? or ate food without scrolling the news feed? or simply had ‘a day’ without your smartphone or any digital devices? For most of us, it’s hard to remember because there might not be that time anyway. Our phone is by our side all the time but is it really on our side?

Everyone I knew, knew that I spend a lot of time on my phone but what I also knew was that everyone spends a lot of time on their phone. So, technically I am not doing anything that’s not acceptable. When the “screen-time” feature of iPhone showed that I spend six or seven, sometime even eight or more hours on my phone, I really needed to make a conscious choice of how I spend my time. On one hand, I was always short of time and on the other hand, I spend more than half of the day on my phone. Seriously!

I still remember the time when there were no smartphones. What we had was a telephone that stuck at one corner of the house, unlike smartphone that goes everywhere with us from restroom to kitchen to bedroom. Whenever I got distracted from my study, I used to write poems at the corner of my page, not pull out my phone and start scrolling. Me and my sister used to discuss about all the things we read, write, see and experienced,  my friends would talk and laugh together when we went out to eat until smartphone became handy and internet became available at fingertips. Then, we started to spend more time with our phone, of course. Does it mean that I don’t like smartphone? want to thrash it and wish we never had a smartphone? No! I like smartphone and appreciate all the advantages it comes with.  It’s the phone and internet that is connecting me to the near and dear ones that I am not physically close with. Literally, I can google  everything I am curious or confused about. Entertainment has become easy, learning has become easy, connecting has become easy. What I really want is to have more self control over myself and my phone usage because more than anything, distraction has become easy.

While I was listening to podcast, I came across a book named “How to break up with your phone” by Catherine Price. I had already deleted most of my social media apps from my phone. So, it was easy for me to follow her guidelines and actually be in the process of breaking up with my phone. I won’t say it is really smooth because it isn’t. There are times when I reached out to my phone consciously and unconsciously. Also, I feel like I am cheating because I may not be spending a lot of my time on my phone but I do spend it on my laptop. Yet, I think it’s okay because using laptop instead of phone creates a little barrier, making me think before I actually open it if it is just to surf the internet.

The good thing is, I may not have transformed into a whole new person who actually uses phone wisely but I am progressing. Now, I don’t take my phone to my bed or restroom or kitchen all the time like before. I don’t spend scrolling Facebook or instagram every now and then, or watch all the random videos in YouTube that does not make sense at all. I use it and still learning to use it wisely. I am learning to be at present, stay idle without doing anything or only doing the thing  I am doing.