Disconnect to Reconnect

21 days ago

Recently, the use of mobile phones and other technological devices has tripled across the globe. Everyone is busy burying their face in their faces, iPads and laptops and we just can seem to get ourselves out of that trance. If we are to be honest, most people today spend their whole lives in social media.

And with the way social media has grown to become, there’s always something to be you to stay there a minute longer, an hour longer or even for the whole day. It’s a never ending process. However, what most of us do not realize most of the time is the fact that there’s an actual life to live away from social media. There are family members we need to spend time with, kids we need to pay attention to, siblings who need us to hear them out and even friends to also make time for. But we are someway somehow made to believe we can do all this on social media which in the end make is miss so many important details and occasions in my life.

I have been addicted to my phone before and I know what it took to get me to take a step back from all that social media craze. I was in my teens then and anything my parents said to me passed one ear and came out the other. I wasn’t ready to listen until I learnt my lessons the hard way. It’s safe to say I wasted some important moments of my life just because I refused to get off the phone. And so, my family especially my parents stated enforcing laws around the house to get us all to spend time with one another which did help me reconnect with my family once again.
Now, I live alone and believe me when I tell you I barely have time for myself. Today, I’ve been on my phone for less are two hours. It’s like I don’t even fancy being on my phone anymore. But the truth is, I also don’t have that luxury and time anymore. I’m busy doing stuff that needs to be done and I know what I would be sacrificing to doom scroll all day.

When it comes to the use of phones in the home, it can get out of hand sometimes especially when both parents and kids are phone addicts. In a setting like that, the family is bound to be in ruins because everyone is a phone junkie and so there would be no one to look out for the other. In my point of view, I believe that in a world where everyone is doom scrolling, parents need to have those family periods where everyone respectfully puts their phones away and spend time with their family. It shouldn’t be a ban, because then it would look like a responsibility. Rather, talk to everyone involved and let them understand the importance of this step. Plan things that would make them even forget their phones existed and that way, you get to all spend your family time happily.

Family is not just about having the same people around you everyday, it’s about making time for them, creating moments and making them feel seen and heard. The phones will be there for ever, but I can’t guarantee we humans will be.

all images belong to me.