Greetings.

Most of you reading this probably use a smartphone daily. They might even manage a large portion of their lives to it and if you’re a teenager you probably average around 7 - 9 Hours of screen time per day. Imagine whay else you could do with that time. Can you guess why most people are bored when they don’t have their phone but when they do they complain about not having enough time. To put it harshly, because they are wasting it on their smartphone, and of course you can do productive things on a smartphone but most of the time they aren’t neccessary. Think about it, is it really enriching your conversation and personal connection with your talking partner if you look up that trivial piece of information exactly in that moment, disrupting your conversation and putting it to a halt? Is it really that productive to see hundreds of funny DIY ideas on Instagram or whatever other scrolling platform which you are most likely never going to pick up on, never going to think about and worst of all, releases a short hit of dopamine but leaves you with nothing else but a dopamine overstimulation in the long run. Do you really get that much more out of your day when you spend the last 2 hours before going to bed by scrolling TikTok? Are you really productive when you get that funny meme while you are talking a walk and watching the sunset while enjoying some music? Are you missing out if you don’t? Should it really be expected and accepted that we have to be reachable by our workplace all day every day? We and everybody else around us seems to tell us that we’re doing what is normal and that you’re missing out on something when you don’t do exactly that. But you are missing out on everthing that life has to offer when you do exactly that. And most importantly you are missing out on happiness. You are missing out on moments of boredom where your thoughts wander and you rediscover your interest for arts and crafts when you start to think about that quote from an indian guru you heard a week ago and decide you want to look into it more. That moment when you are just in a forest with a person you love, just you two. Nobody can disturb you and take that moment away from you. You are missing out on being a better you, you are missing out on living more of yourself because you are wasting it on consuming short form content that leaves you with nothing but a smile on your face and a numb mind.

This is a much broader conversation than smartphones. This is a conversation about life in our civilization. Ask yourself what you get out of something and put it as bluntly as possible, be honest with yourself. You don’t need a smartphone, a feature phone will do. You don’t need headphones, a speaker will do. You don’t need to read the news every day, what’s important to you will reach you anyway. You don’t need a TV, you can spend time doing anything else. Give yourselves the time back that you deserve, our lives are so long and why should we waste it on things that don’t matter, that don’t give us anything in return and just leach us for money. I’m not saying you should drop these things right away, but if you can, it’s even better. This is a process, a change in mindset. We need to change this civilization to be more responsible with the technology we have. This is not about being against technological advancements, this is about making sure what is new actually improves our lifes. And it’s not always about comfort, there is so much more to life than comfort.

I changed my life and I’m far from the end of my journey, I don’t use a smartphone and everybody around me has accepted this, it’s not awkward anymore. Most people around me envy me because I don’t have that burden in my pocket everywhere I go. This goes for people my age (18) as well as much older. Keep these damn things away from our kids and give your baby the time that it deserves instead of sinking your time into a technological black hole. Your not finding peace by numbing your brain, much like alcohol, scrolling through instagram is not the solution to get a time off your daily life. Dealing with it is. Taking an actual step back and doing something for you, something that you can take with you. Go for a walk in the woods and just let your thoughts wander, embrace the silence. I promise you will feel much more satisfied when you come back than if you had spent that time watching mindless Netflix series or looking at Instagram. There is a value to entertainment, but it has to be quality entertainment and it shouldn’t be overdosed. Take responsibility for your own fucking life, we’re adults here and behaving like literal children clinging on to the poison pill that kills us. Let go.