Go away - phone addiction!!

I've always kept away from anything I thought could become a addiction - the sorts that are not wanted. Never developed a coffee habit even though I love filter coffee. Avoided ice-creams even when I felt like having one every day. All in the name of an addiction free existence. 

Hence the unpleasant surprise on realizing that I've developed a totally unwanted addiction. Much as I would like to deny it, I think I'm addicted to my phone. I'm still on a blackberry, haven't migrated to an android yet, and I'm still at it for a better part of the day. Where will it go once I get onto this android bandwagon with the large screens and multiple apps, I wonder. I was shocked when I realized how frequently I keep checking for updates, even in the middle of doing something interesting, when ideally my mind should be 100% engaged. I'm constantly clicking to see if there is a new whatsapp message from the groups I'm on, a new email that's hit my inbox in the 28.5 secs that I was busy doing something else!!

And why it's worrying is because the phone actually does not engage me. I use it functionally - for making calls, messaging, emailing and whatsapping when needed and clicking an occasional picture. I do use it for making notes and writing when a pen and paper are not around, or when I really feel like penning my thoughts. I could leave my phone at home and not miss it. It could be out of charge and I wouldn't be craving to get it back. Which is why I was shocked at how often I was looking for updates.

(Source: http://ryanvet.com/blog/social-media/mobile-marketing/cure-for-cell-phone-addiction/)

This article does a great job of describing what the smart phone takes away from our lives.

There was a big shift on the planet in the year 2005. This was the year the iPhone was born. Prior to that, our lives were often filled with small gaps of emptiness. These were moments of respite to contemplate, ponder and just BE in a simple state of awareness.    

Have you noticed that in your life, and the lives of those around you, that we have removed all those spaces in our day and we've filled them in with more and more data processing: Emails, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Kik, HeyTell, Instagram, newsfeeds, and Google. 

Some of our most creative impulses and intuition are born in those empty spaces. And now, we're relying on someone else's post of a Gandhi quote or a YouTube clip of a puppy dog playing with a kitten for our inspiration, rather than connecting with our own inner voice of wisdom.    

I so agree. We're always processing information that's coming at us - information that we may or may not need and very often, information that we can do without. I don't need to know every time someone sends me an FB message or when someone posts something in a Whatsapp group or when I receive the nth mail about some promotion. I'm not obsessed with responding at the earliest and usually take my time. So it's not as if the phone is my life.

And thus, I realize, this constant checking must be one of those bad habits that one keeps repeating mindlessly - except that it has an impact. It actually robs me of these small moments where I could have been thinking, dreaming, mentally engaging with myself instead of some information that I didn't need in the first place.

I feel the need to pause this constant flow of information hitting us and breathe in ... just "be" as the article states ... to connect with the sense of calm that is latent within.