₦airaland Forum

I was beginning to spend much hours on my phone. I was spending more than seven hours on my phone everyday. This was just an average.
Since I came back from school because of the shutdown of schools due to the outbreak of Corona Virus (termed COVID-19), if I wasn’t sleeping or eating, more than half of the remaining time was me on my phone.
Either I was on Facebook, WhatsApp or on the Internet. Sometimes, I even do night subscriptions for N25 which lasts from 12am to 5am. I was slowing turning to a wizard.
I had to do something to curtail this growing habit. Previously, I had tried different options. One was deciding to use my phone not more than 2 hours a day. Another was deleting the games and social media applications from my phone.
Unfortunately, none of these methods lasted more than two days. Actually, some of the attempts on the first mentioned option managed to last two days because of power supply failure.
This time , I took a difficult decision. I decided to switch off my phone for one week. It was one of the tough decisions I have made in my life.
On the night of Wednesday (the day I came about the decision), I switched off my phone and put it in a phone carton, my brother’s. I subsequently put it in a box in my parents room so that it won’t be very close to me.
The next day, I started the mission with a high spirit, determined to see it through.
The first two days were fruitful. I read more compared to when my phone was with me. I was no longer a wizard at night. I rested more, slept more and also watched movies on television. I seldom do these things when my phone was with me.
But on the third day, I started to feel uncomfortable. I was beginning to feel the absence of my phone. It was becoming boring for me.
Normally, when I read books, I like to have my phone with me because I get to check difficult words with few taps on my Tecno Pop 2 Power screen. I also get to browse for background information on things I don’t understand using the Internet.
Initially, I had thought that reading without my phone was going to be less distracting but more distracting was the thought of not having my phone to check the difficult things that I wanted to check and verify.
I was already tired of checking the voluminous Oxford dictionary text up and down for new or confusing words. It got to a point that I stopped checking every difficult word I wanted to check. It means that I was reading without fully understanding some terms i came across.
Even, trusting the use of contexts to understand words can be disappointing at times because i have discovered that some words are opposite of what I formally thought they were.
At this point, the vision of finishing the seven days phone lockdown was beginning to blur. I was losing it slowly.
On the fourth day, it occurred to me that that I had become oblivious of the happenings in the world when I first learnt from my mom about the death of Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria. He had died weeks after contracting the Corona virus.
Normally, I would have been the first to break the news to my family but this time, it was not the case. Imagine hearing the news from my mom who was not the type current with news.
Before the self induced phone lockdown, I was the type that checked BBC news websites almost everyday to read the headlines and sometimes the news in full. I also checked Nairaland for local and international news and gossips. Even Facebook helped with some information from different people.
On Monday, the fifth day, it dawned on me that I couldn’t bear it any longer. It was as if I was going mad. I felt like i was shut off from the world.
Around 10am of that day, I went to where I had kept my phone and brought it out (the battery had been dead before I started the phone lockdown). Luckily, there was light. I put the phone to charge.
When NEPA took the light, I walked to where my phone had been charging. Without wasting time, I switched on the phone. You need to see the smile that appeared on my face. That smile when you are served a delicious meal after a dry fasting.
Looking at the topmost right corner of my 5.5 inches phone display screen after the phone booted, I saw 32% and I was content with it. It was not too far from the average of 50% my 4000mAh phone battery get to charge up to everyday in my area in Onitsha.
Power supply is below average in my area. Around four hours out of 24 hours in a day. A huge contrast to the uninterrupted power supply I enjoy in my school hostel.
The experience of phone lockdown for days is not the one I would want to pass through again. Four and half days without my phone took me back to the ’80s when phones lacked internet. It was like a punishment to myself.
Think of yourself locked alone in a dark room for days. That was exactly how i felt.

https://ejrwritings./2020/04/20/four-days-of-phone-lockdown-my-experience/

Wow

26-27 joor. For healthy and strong children. God willingly

Lol