Stephanie Inakoju: Are We Becoming Too Attached to Our Phones?

Why have we gotten so obsessed with our devices these days? How did we become so glued to our phones, our laptops, our iPads, our consoles, our monitors that it feels like we don’t have any other life apart from our devices and our work? It seems social media has carried us away from actually having a life outside of our screens.

I am a living example of that. I’ve gotten so used to my laptop and my phone that they’ve become my comfort and company when I’m not working or doing chores. I knew this when I realised that I had deviated from who I used to be years ago. My parents didn’t allow me to own a phone until I graduated from secondary school, unlike my friends whose parents let them have phones from JSS1. I often felt like the odd one out. I thought my parents were too harsh and strict, that they were doing things the “old-fashioned way”, and I needed them to be cool parents.

But being a cool parent doesn’t mean giving your kids devices they absolutely don’t need. If you want to reach your kids at home, any phone works just fine. Now, as a young adult with a lot of freedom, I’ve realised how much my devices have been damaging me. They made me drift from being that girl who loved vocabulary growing up.

I’ve always loved writing since I was a little girl. My dad bought me interesting books to read as a child. I remember when I passed my Common Entrance into secondary school in 2013, he bought me Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s Purple Hibiscus to mark the milestone. I love my dad so much for that. My mom too, because she bought me books whenever she could.

There was this particular shop opposite the University of Ibadan where she bought me novels. They were imported books, and they were of great value to me. The first one she ever got for me was Nora Roberts‘ Blue Smoke. It was a mixture of mystery, crime, romance and discovery.

That part of my childhood shaped who I am today in my writing journey.

But I have found myself drifting apart from who I was. I was no longer reading books or developing myself like before.

I might be grown, but that doesn’t mean the dreams and values I had as a little girl had to die. This isn’t just about me. The world has deviated from important things. The percentage of people who spend most of their time on social media is way higher, as Al Jazeera reported.

While there are opportunities for youths, adults, and even kids on social media, the opportunities are not what we spend hours on TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitch, Snapchat, Twitter, and the like. I believe our brains need healthy things to feed on. Aside from the food we eat, there are the things we consume that also help the brain grow. You can choose between reading books, improving your vocabulary, reading articles and learning something new every day, or staring at your devices, playing games and watching skits all day.

Some people say, “I go to work, and the little time I have, I can’t spend it reading.” But there are days — weekends, free evenings — when we don’t have work. It doesn’t have to be spent on our screens all day. You can read something that fascinates you. It doesn’t have to be serious. It can be fun, interesting, anything.

Reading like this helps us manage our time better and prevents us from wasting away by just staring at our screens.

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