Are you addicted to your phone? I am. I had a close family member speak to me last week about my addiction. It was hard to hear.
I had all kinds of justifications. For example, I take pride in my work and like to respond to people quickly. But, the data didn't pan out. When I looked at the screen time measures on the phone, I was embarrassed. Let's just say that there is more productivity and quality time with my family that could be enjoyed if I manage my consumption of media from my phone.
So - here's what I did and I hope to measure the progress over the next few months:
1. I removed the email tab from my phone. An executive from a music school encouraged me to do this. He removed the email tab from the phone so that when he goes to the computer to manage his email flow, it's deliberate and intentional - not reactionary.
2. I removed, for now, all social media tabs from the phone. It's known that these apps are designed to "hack your brain." They are built like slot machines at a casino to create addicts. They hacked my brain and I chose to remove them. Google "brain-hacking" and you will be astonished at what is happening.
I am not anti-technology. On the contrary, there are a couple of projects that I am working on right now in the field of music technology that are exciting and could be revolutionary in a number of ways. I want to use technology and not let technology use me by getting at my base impulses. FOMO (fear of missing out) might be covetousness masked. Deadly.
So positively, I want to replace my addiction with the following:
1. I want to be intentional about how I use social media. It can be a powerful tool for sharing my work and ideas. There has never been a time in the history of the world where creatives have the opportunity to be their own media companies.
2. I want to model for students and my own children the right use of things. I do not want things ie social media to alter my brain chemistry, habits, and use of my time.
Until tomorrow,
Benjamin