Are you a slave to your mobile phone?

ARE YOU A SLAVE TO YOUR MOBILE PHONE?

The problem is not the phones or that we have become addicted to them, but our mindless usage of the device Do you own your phone or does your phone own you? This isn’t an effort to start a column with some pseudo-intellectual BS, it’s a question that you need to deeply reflect on before you read any further. Have we let our phones take over our lives? Do we think we are doing the right thing when we are tapping away on our mobile devices every minute of every waking hour? We all ask these questions, may even self reflect on them sometimes, but then another message arrives, another like on Facebook, another post on Insta and we are back, tapping and scrolling our lives away.

• The problem is not the phones or that we have become addicted to them, but our mindless usage of the device Do you own your phone or does your phone own you? This isn’t an effort to start a column with some pseudo-intellectual BS, it’s a question that you need to deeply reflect on before you read any further. Have we let our phones take over our lives? Do we think we are doing the right thing when we are tapping away on our mobile devices every minute of every waking hour? We all ask these questions, may even self reflect on them sometimes, but then another message arrives, another like on Facebook, another post on Insta and we are back, tapping and scrolling our lives away.

• Honest confession time. I’ve had moments of doubt about my own column and what I do. Am I in some way also propagating and becoming a catalyst in this move towards mindless slavery to our device?

• There is a quiz being played out all over the world and some very interesting insights are coming out – 42% Indians find it easier to stay away from their families for a week than their phones, 100% respondents keep their phone within arm’s reach for an average of 21 hours, 58% Indians use their phones while they are using the toilet (!!), 81% people check their phone during a wedding ceremony, while making out (!!), in a shower, or at a funeral! How much of the above is you? Google ‘Phone Life Balance Quiz’ and let me know what you scored