I don’t keep my mobile phone on my bedside table during night . Nope, not even in airplane mode like so many people do. “What about the nice alarm tones that can wake you up. Won’t you miss them?” Asked a teeny tiny voice from inside me . “Well “ , I said “ I think I can live with the monochromatic sound of the alarm clock that currently wakes me up.”

This particular day, I forgot to leave my phone outside. So when I woke up in the morning I saw it on my bedside table, waiting with all the hidden notifications, messages, and emails. I thought I heard it whisper ” Hey… good morning….pick me up!” I had posted something on my social media handle the previous night, and so the stakes were high.

I could literally see it trying to lure me into picking it up so that I could go through all those messages that, actually speaking, could very well wait for another eternity before I read them. I could see all the apps and the ads that were lined up for me, based on whatever I had browsed the previous night, seeking for my attention. I could see myself surrounded by each one of them and all of them were crying for my engagement. Wow that was a very vivid imagination, you might think. I must thank the documentary Social Dilemma on Netflix for helping me have these visual effects.

I cannot thank all of my friends enough for recommending this docudrama so highly. Everyone must watch it. It is really important for those of us who rely on visual learning mechanism to watch it in order to understand how exactly this addiction works. It really helps us in making wise and informed choices with regard to our phone engagement.

“And then what ?” You might ask. And then, there is a lot of effort we have to put in to make sure that we can steer clear of all the unwanted and undue importance that we give to each and every beep or notification on this tiny little device.

So coming back to my morning , I successfully stayed away from it until I finished all the stuff I had to before checking the phone . This was just one of those times that I was successful. There are so many times when I have fallen for those beeps and wasted so many hours doing nothing but unmindfully scroll up and down the screen.

Very well knowing that the bookmark in A Promised Land , Barack Obama’s book that is lying on the table is also seeking my attention. Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis , the audio book that I borrowed from my library using the Libby App ( I wrote about how convenient this app has made my life in one of my previous blogs about Staycation ) is fast approaching its due to return date. That is crying out for my attention too. And I should have gotten lured by them and not the very device that I am typing this blog on.

It does sound ironic right . It is in fact a real dilemma. I am using the same device and typing away to my heart’s content into the notes of my phone and am convincing myself as to why I should keep away from it . Well, that’s life . Everything has two sides and we always choose which side we want to use . So I tell myself- “write away girl, write to your heart’s content on the very same phone that you are trying to stay away from. Just make sure your phone is on the airplane mode or you don’t look at any other app until you finish writing”.

So on that particular day, when I walked away from all the attention seeking , engagement wanting apps and servers , I felt like I was walking away from the clutches of the demogorgon or the evil shadows ( referance : Stranger Things on Netflix)

The only solution here is to mindfully restrict the time we spend on the device. To understand and acknowledge that it is easy to fall into the trap. Apps that can help us stay focused , restrict the time we spend on social media, track the time spent on each activity, etc are good ways of educating ourselves and taking care of ourselves.

There is a lot of content on the internet that you have the freedom to choose from in the time that you have allotted for reading content. Today, you chose to spend your 6 minutes reading this blog and I am truly thankful for that.

Thank you and hope you are successful in setting those healthy boundaries and adhering to it. 

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

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