Does Your Phone Own You?

    You ever count the number of times you look at your phone in an hour? What about a whole day? I find myself checking my phone a lot, especially when I’m bored. It’s so much of a habit, that when I don’t check my phone, I get antsy. “Did someone text me? What if they need me? What if Bryan fell down a well and needs me to save him? I’m important. I need to look at my phone!” And then there’s nothing when I check.

    Every time I take a break from soccer, volleyball, or a meeting, I check my phone. One day, in the car on the way to mass, my sister called me out. “What, the four people in this car isn’t good enough? You need to call out?” And she was right. I wasn’t showing love and respect to my family because I was with them physically, but I tried to be somewhere else.

    We get so caught up in certain things that we become a slave to it. I am a slave to YouTube videos when I keep clicking the next video, but know I should be doing something more valuable with my time. I’m a slave to my bed in the morning because I never want to get out of it. The more we say no to sleeping in, that second YouTube video, going on Instagram every five minutes, etc, the freer we become. If you can’t sit or go for a walk for an hour without looking at your phone, or getting an itch to want to do something else, you are not free.

    People say, “I’m free to do what I want, when I want.” All I can think is, “Can you freely say no to it?” Take a look at your life choices as far as why you’re doing something. If you’re watching videos to feel less lonely, ask a friend to hangout, go to the movies, the park, play volleyball, set up minute to win it games, build a fort or a tree house, go for a bike ride, etc. When we are able to substitute bad habits with good ones, we will have a much happier and freer life.