Spend a little time enjoying life
Yes, I can live without my smartphone. In fact, I think it will help us start using our brains a lot more and help us get smarter, we really are too dependent on our smartphones. We are wasting precious, quality time with family, though it is useful as far as the internet is concerned.
However, I feel we are getting addicted to it and wasting time more than utilising it. I also feel that is not nice when it comes to our health, we should not be holding on to the phone all the time, especially at night, after 9pm. Instead, we carry it to bed, which I really don’t like, and wake up with it. It used to be that we woke up with a prayer!
I do have a smartphone but I still prefer those that only make calls and, at the most, send text messages. My husband uses a smartphone as well and so does my daughter who is 20. My son, who is 15 years old, does not have a mobile phone and he does not even touch ours. He loves music, so he uses the tablet or laptop at home to search for tips on how to play percussion instruments, for example.
My daughter does not have a Facebook account and I use mine minimally.
We as a family love music and enjoy different activities like debates and discussions. When my daughter, who is a good singer, comes home from college, she sings and my son plays the tabla. That is how we usually spend time at home. On the other hand, when I look at other children, they seem to be connected to the world through their smartphones, but I actually think they are becoming lonely.
From Ms Naina Nair
Novelist living in Abu Dhabi