The Small Screen That Now Controls Us

It might not be everyone, maybe those who are yet to see civilization, but anytime I move around, be it on my street, in the market, inside the bush, or in the mall, even inside the church, it looks like everyone is glued and focused on their phones, both young and old. I have heard someone tell me that she missed an appointment all because she was watching TikTok videos that carried her attention away. And even inside the church these days, it is what I see every Sunday: a lot of people are now living in their phones instead of being focused on the sermon, and thus it has even eaten deep into our homes—no real time and family time again. Everyone is busy with their phone.

I, myself, writing this post, am so guilty of those things I have mentioned above because there are times that I wake up in the morning, and instead of doing my personal devotion or even checking if I can still move my body, the first thing I do is I start pressing and scrolling on my phone, replying to messages. And before I know it, 20 or 30 minutes are gone already.

The phone is another type of terrible addiction that, when it starts, looks like enjoyment, but when it has eaten deep into us, it will look like we cannot do without it, and when our phone is dead, we will be looking for a means to charge it because it looks like they have taken something away from us. Some are even addicted to a point that they start checking their phones every now and then like they are expecting something, and that is because it has taken away their peace and replaced it with a strange feeling.

And I will not lie, for those who are easily moved by what they see online after viewing the picture of what people post, it has affected them in a negative way because too much screen time can affect our mental health, make us feel tired easily, and even make our minds very and oddly noisy.

What I have been doing for the past few months since I watched that, apart from trying not to get addicted to my phone, is that it can be very dangerous to our health when we sleep with it because of the radiation coming from it. I have been putting my phone far away from me before I sleep and to not distract me when I wake up so I can do the needful first, because my phone should just remain a gadget, not my controller.

Thank you for reading.

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