Put Down the Phone - Pick Up a Book
Your cellphone is the most dangerous item you own. CDC statistics show that 23% of all auto accidents are caused by cell phone use. More than 3,000 people die in the U.S. alone EVERY YEAR from auto crashes caused by cell phones. Nearly 50 people lose their lives every year while trying to take dangerous selfies. In Ohio, a man was killed by a roller coaster when he jumped a fence to retrieve the phone that had fallen out of his pocket on the ride. People literally walk into traffic, even off the end of piers(!), while paying more attention to their tiny screens than to the world around them. Need I say more?
I dare say that the number of people who have been killed by a book while reading it is infinitesimally smaller than those phone stats. Yes, there are few cases of people reading a book while driving, which falls under the category of You Can’t Fix Stupid. But the phone dings, chimes, lights up and generally throws a fit every time you don’t immediately pay attention to it when the thing beckons. The addiction to this instant gratification demanded by the digital world is literally killing us.
There’s an even more insidious harm caused by cell phone addiction. You are literally turning control of your mind over to it. You passively watch the videos it tells you to watch. You play the games it tells you to play. Sure, you may occasionally read something on the phone, but even the most useful information is kept to a few short sentences, lest you get bored and flick away to something else.
Do yourself a favor. Every once in a while, give your mind an active role in what you’re doing. Put the phone down and pick up a book. Engage your mind’s eye to create the theater being presented to you by the words in that book. Like the little girl in the drawing, to an observer you might look like you’re doing almost nothing. But the movie your imagination is conjuring up from the story your eyes are taking in is going to be more creative, more visceral, than any film you have ever seen. You don’t just see the story. You feel it!
In my book, Plan A Never Happens, you feel the anxiety caused by trying to move to Costa Rica in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. In my book, Murdered For Nothing, you feel the stress a quintuple homicide case causes for every single character in the book. And in Breaking the Weak Link, you feel the motivations of every participant morphing as the plot twists over and over. As the last chapter finally exposes the true story, you will physically gasp with surprise.
Yes, the crazy cats and lovable puppies splattered all over every video service and social media site on your phone are cute beyond reason. The texts from your friends can be hilarious or informative. Even that occasional phone call (Do you still get actual calls?) can be very important. Tend to them when you can safely do so. But, for an hour or two every day, put the phone down and pick up a book.
Your mind will thank you for it.