It’s not easy to admit when you have a problem, harder still is to share it with a broader audience but, here I go.
I, like many, have an addictive personality. Whether it is food, or the occasional extra drink, or food (if you’ve seen me, you know my vice) but one that I had not realized became stunningly clear over the past 40 days. I was surprised by or because so many people do it, I thought to myself surely that doesn’t mean there is a problem, right?
Wrong.
I utilized this season of Lent to fast from social media. I found myself addicted not so much to the posting but the dopamine hit that came from excessive use. Researchers say it is similar in the way to the dopamine hit gamblers and drug users get. We compulsively check out social media to get that hit.
So I deleted Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I kept LinkedIn, I never doom scrolled LinkedIn like the others.
So what was the result? Clarity. After a few days, my mind felt a sense of relief, I felt less pressure and the urge to check went away with every passing day…. The worst part is that I realized, I was addicted to my phone.
Not a lot of people are okay to say that. Let alone something that doesn’t seem addictive but the research is there. I spent the b past 40 days reading and learning about it and other addictions.
Let me say this it may not seem as serious but life is not happening in your phone, it’s happening right in front of you. Choosing a screen as your escape is to me, similar to the alcoholics, gamblers, and drug addicts choose their vices to retreat from the world.
So what now? Lent is over… people say well now I can go back to doing what I want… one of the points to me of Lent is to take what you learned and expand on it with God’s help.
So I plan to share from time to time on social media updates mainly about family and my blogs…maybe try to leave and inspiring message but then delete the apps. I don’t want to comment, dooms roll, or engage with the toxicity that can be found online.
Instead, I want to put my phone down, look up at my family and focus on them and the world around me. I want to make sure I do my part to make it a world that the next generation (my daughters) would be proud to live in.
It is time for all of us to lead by example… phones down, eyes forward, minds clear.
Happy Easter!
Well said Will!