A Little Bit of Clarity

I'm addicted yall. I didn't think it was a problem... but when I was forced to quit cold turkey for 48 hours I realized how bad the problem really is.

I'm addicted to my phone.

I had no idea! I don't spend all of my time texting or playing Angry Birds. Yet, when my phone randomly broke on Saturday I sort of felt like someone had chopped off my leg.

Suddenly I realized with such clarity it smacked me in the face that my phone is a huuuge part of my life.

Examples:

1)I couldn't get into contact... with anyone. Not when I was going to meet my parents at their seats to watch the footballgame, not when I did something dumb and needed to ask my mom what to do, not when I wanted to ask a classmate a question about Spanish, and not even when I wanted to go eat with friends!

2)Instagram. :(

3)MUSIC... my world for the past two days has been quite quiet. I need my T Swift and David Crowder back.

4)Maps: It was even worse than the new Apple Map App...

And as each hour went by I realized a new use that I associated with my phone that I hadn't ever thought about. Turns out I spend a lot more time looking at the little retina display that I thought.

How bad is that? Because I don't think I am the only one. How many times, instead of experiencing the world around us, do we look at our phones? How many times to we play angry birds instead of reading a book. Can you imagine if we spend all of those moments praying? If we sent a "text" to God instead of reading those old messages? I imagine it would be like when in Elf the Christmas Spirit meter sky rocketed and Santa's sleigh took off (if you haven't seen that movie shame on you. Go watch it. Right now. I'll wait.). Wouldn't it be cool?

My phone is currently in the shop getting repaired, but when I get it back I think I am going to try something new. I'm going to spend some time away from my phone. When I am studying, or walking to class, or hanging out with friends, I am going to try to be present. That means I have to put the phone away. It will be hard at first, but life is far too short to live it through my iphone.