Holly Would:
Last month I went out for dinner with a group of friends and I noticed something disturbing: we were all glued to our mobile phones. The disturbing part was that I probably wouldn’t have even realised this if my battery had not run out.
I sat at the table, mobile-less, chatting to my friends when every so often somebody would say: “one sec, let me just…” followed by the sound of typing.
Again, this is something I wouldn’t have noticed if I had still had my own device.
As I looked around the room, I realised it wasn’t just our table whose eyes were fixated on their mobiles, but the whole restaurant’s. Families, friends, couples and even the waiter had their phone glued to their hand. Everyone was more concerned with talking on their device rather than talking to the people sat beside them.
Surely that’s not normal? But it is normal because as the days went by I noticed a similar pattern everywhere I went. Walking down the street, queuing in a shop, sitting on a train.
Every single person had some sort of gadget that they clutched to.
This got me thinking, how much of our day do we spend distracted by our phones and what are we missing? As I researched this online (using my phone, ironically) I discovered a study that showed how the average person spends more time on their devices than they do sleeping per day.
How many nights had I swapped hours of sleep for hours of pointlessly scrolling through Instagram? Countless nights.
I finally understood why my parents wouldn’t let us have our mobiles at the dinner table. I wondered if this was a rule that I should apply to other parts of my life too so, as of last week, I have been doing just that. I have decided that being on my phone so much is bad for me, it makes me oblivious to my surroundings.
As a journalist, I need to be aware of what is happening around me at all times so I started a phone detox. This doesn’t mean that I have stopped using my phone all together; it just means that I have limited the amount of time that I can spend on it.
Surprisingly, it was easier to do than I thought it would be. In the morning I check my messages and then it goes straight into my bag until I’m at work.
When I’m with my friends, all of our phones now go face down in a pile on the table so that none of us are tempted to start scrolling through Instagram.
At night time I have started to put my phone on silent and place it on the other side of the room, this way I actually sleep instead of lying in bed and Googling answers for every single question I can think of.
What have I found out from this little experiment? Well, to start with, I’m a lot more awake and alert… This probably has something to do with the extra sleep… Which means that I’m more focused, therefore I’m less stressed and that makes me a lot happier!
Everyone should unplug themselves from their device and see what they're missing out on!
CelebCity:
Rap fans were in their element on November 19 as English rapper Sneakbo performed at the King of Clubs club event in Shoosh.
The rapper, best known for his song The Wave, not only performed his set but also got to know his fans. He got the crowd involved in chants and performed closely to all of the people that had come to see him.
Noticeably, there weren’t any security guards following him around the room and instead the rapper integrated himself amongst the audience. Sneakbo was recently featured in the new song ‘We Don’t Play No Games’ alongside artists Tinie Tempah and MoStack.
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