Our smartphones are wonderful tools that can help us streamline life. They can also streamline our behavior to focusing soley on their glossy surfaces. Here’s a little story where I fell trap to the addictive device.
(Keep reading to see more photos and hear the confessions of a growing phone addict!)
Since I started my full-time new job in February, I was trying to put in 2 hours each evening into artwork, Monday through Thursday.
Within that chunk of time, I tried to [and still do] keep on top of this Camino project, commissions, and studying, and then try to get to bed early enough to be ready to tackle the next day and my resolution.
By then, I was doing a good job failing at my Camino resolution.
One particular dark evening, under the bright work light, sipping tea, and wishing that I could be free to do anything else, I set up the commission project like I always did.
I kinda-sorta got started.
But I balked at the next part that would require more concentration and application.
And then the little brain cells looked elsewhere for distratction. Hmmmmm….oh, yes, my phone! Surely there’s something to look at here…
What’s this message here? Mmmmm…I’ll delay responding; writing a reply is too much work.
Oh, and I should check Instagram too….oh, wow, she has a new post?! I want to see his reel!…
Half an hour later (over an hour in other times), I had waisted half of my commission time, and felt less happy than before.
The sad thing is, it didn’t happen one time: it was happening ALL of the time.
I was letting my phone harm me and my work. Self-harm.
Whenever those harmful detours happen, I ty to reclaim the time. It’s amazing how much relief one feels when one faces the ‘hard’ dragons. I certaintly didn’t finish the commission that night, but I did put something in the bucket for sure!
Now, when the time that evening came to move from commission work to the Camino Project, I didn’t know what to do in my journal. I just knew I wanted to do a ‘papery’ layout, show the appearnace of what will one day become the rose window of the Immaculata….and then I realized I had to include the phone.
It is with me much of the Camino -it’s constantly in the hands of most people around us. As I designed and began to paint the picture, I felt like I finally identified the phone’s grip on me and what I was truly using it for in those moments.
The in-coming text in the painting reads:
This phone allows me to balk and delay doing the duty of the present moment – just a minute becomes time never gained back.
It numb the fact that you are saying no to God and the reality right in front of you.
~God
We as fallen humans follow the path of least resistance. So, when we have an awkaward situation in front of us, a heavy task ahead of us, a difficult feeling to examine, an annoying person, we glance at that screen.
And those glances become habits, and pretty soon, that phone is never far from one’s hands when one feels uncomfortbale in anyway.
That’s scary because life is full of hard, uncomfortable things, from the moment one is born into this world.
Difficulty will be experienced from the most basic daily tasks to the most fulfilling: growing in loving relationships.
If mankind has only to put a sceen in front of his face when reality is not to his liking, will he ever truly experience reality?
Paraphrasing Matt Frad, in Pints with Aquinas, when discussing phone usage, said we don’t even daydream anymore…those little bits of time when we used to have little bits of time, like in the bathroom or at a traffic light, where does our mind go?
My question for myself whenever I reach for that sleek, attractive device is “Why?”
If it’s not part of the immediate DOS (duty of state), then it can wait.
There may be worlds of interesting things inside that shiny phone, but there’s a whole world right outside the phone made just for us.
I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this post, check out some of the inspiration for this page. When you click the picture-links above, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Click and you’re the best!
Centered around wonder and friendship, this children’s book inspired the ‘paper’ spread.
A wise, balanced, and well researched examination into why and how to use our technology well.
Bridget Bryan 