3 ways to beat your phone addiction
Put down the phone and get back to God.
Does this sound like you?
Your alarm goes off. You roll over and grab your phone and start scrolling through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When you get out of bed to brush your teeth, you take your phone with you. You’re scrolling as you eat breakfast, as you go to the toilet, as you walk to the bus stop. You check your phone at every possible opportunity at school. You walk home staring at the screen and nearly get hit by a car.
So many teenagers are totally addicted to their phones. Phone addiction manifests itself much like other addictions - it can take over your life and change your daily routines.
Phone addiction is bad for so many reasons. Being constantly connected damages your social skills, prevents you from being present and able to respond quickly to situations, and distracts you from important things going on around you.
From a Christian perspective, phone addiction is really bad too. Being addicted to your phone might mean you don’t concentrate during sermons or Bible study, can’t focus on your quiet times or simply don’t invest time in meaningful relationships with others.
Anything that we put before God is an idol, and your phone might be an idol for you. If you think your phone is an idol and you want to defeat your addiction, here are some ways you can do it!
Pray
Whenever we try and do anything as Christians, we should pray about it. It is only through God’s strength that we will be able to battle against sin and win, so if you want to end your phone addiction, start with prayer. Pray that God will help you refocus your attention on him and living a life that pleases him. Thank him for his faithfulness.
Remove temptation
One of the best ways to overcome an addiction is to simply remove the temptation. Matthew 5:29 says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” If the Bible says that about eyes, imagine what it would say about phones!!
You could start small - put your phone on plane mode while you’re at school or church, or turn it off overnight. You could even delete the apps that are most addictive on your phone - maybe Facebook needs to go!
But if you need to ‘gouge out’ your phone even more, then consider ditching your smartphone. Older style phones without internet just aren’t as addictive as our smart devices, so sell your iPhone and go back to something you can only use for calling and texting.
Team up
If you’re addicted to your phone, you’re probably not the only one in your social group! Gather a group of friends (Christian friends are great!) and talk about the problem together. Make commitments to each other about what you’re going to do to fight against the addiction. Maybe you could all decide to turn your phones off for an hour each evening and you could keep each other accountable by discussing how you did the next day.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can fight against the things other than God that rule our lives. Don’t let your phone take over!
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