Turn ON Life
Stop, look, and listen to the world around you, there is so much to see, feel, and experience!
Have you noticed how these days our phones seem so insistent on giving us notifications?
They come to us in a grand myriad of ways, each designed to take us to a different place, and often in a different direction. Telecommunications and social media have become an information warehouse where we are the merchandise. We are itemized, categorized, and packaged into convenient little boxes, ready for use.
These days we can be talking about something one minute and the next receive an advertisement to buy it. Big Brother is indeed watching! George Orwell wasn’t too far off with some of his predictions, except that rather than being monitored to be rewarded or chastised; our habits and movements are being tracked to sell us things. Everywhere we turn there is something else to buy, a new promotion, a new idea or a different approach.
Maybe this isn’t a bad thing, after all, if we are sold what we want, perhaps it saves us time. Yet sometimes it seems the electronic nature of our world can become a bit too much. We are constantly inundated with offers to buy things or to make a new investment. Between radio, television, telephones, and billboards, we are bombarded with offers, each vying for our attention, and ultimately wanting our money or participation in something or another.
While it’s tough to turn off the visual barrage of information as we go about our way, we can control our “electronic exposure”. We can decide to be in control of what we see and when we see it.
We can do so by doing the following:
First, and most importantly, simply turn OFF all notifications on your phone, except for those that are vitally important, like phone calls. As soon as you do, I guarantee you will feel a sudden sense of relief from all the bells and whistles normally being emitted from the device. Instead of constantly looking at your phone whenever it pings or pangs, you can do something more important with your life than following advertisers links from one place to another.
My second suggestion is to establish a time when you are ON to the world, and a time when you are OFF. I like 8 am to 8 pm to be on, since most things can generally be taken care of during those hours. From 8 pm to 8 am, I sometimes have the phone on, but I generally stay away from social media and messaging, using it only for listening to music, taking pictures, or watching movies.
How long does it take for you to grab your phone and check your messages in the morning?
If you are like many people, it’s the first thing you do. Instead of starting your day with your phone, what about starting your day by reading a good book, talking with your mate, or simply having a cup of coffee while watching the sunrise?
This may sound okay except that you may want to say good morning to a special someone somewhere. If that’s the case, by all means do it! Maybe you can even have a virtual “cup of coffee” with them. Turn on your phone, call them up, and video if possible. Not a problem, but after you do it is there something else you can do rather than simply scrolling through the endless stories, posts, tweets, and e-mails which have become such a part of our lives?
Unless you have some vital information you are waiting for first thing in the morning, how about giving your mind a break for awhile before turning on your phone, using it when you are ready to start your “electronic day”, rather than grabbing it automatically as you wake up?
Our phones are vital to many of the things we need to get done in today’s world and we should use them to be more productive. But, instead of letting them dictate how much time we spend on them and what we do with them, we can be their masters rather than their slaves. Instead of automatically picking your phone up every little while to see what has happened in the world whenever it dings, instead you can decide when to pick it up and how long to spend on it.
There is so much to see, feel, and experience in the world which is not contained within the small screen of our mobile devices. Take the time to stop, look, and listen to the world around you by turning OFF notifications and turning ON life.
∞ Rob McBride ∞
30 Dec 2020
LL V 8