A digital detox for Ramadan

Astonishingly, an average person spends many hours on social media every day. Which means a typical social media user loses a lot of productive time in a year that could have been used for learning a new skill set, reading a book or learning a new instrument. In today’s fast moving world it is unimaginable to go a day without your smartphones. They have become an extension of ourselves. However the important question here is: Can we imagine a life without smartphones? Well the answer to that is, 25 years ago we all did! And our lives went about smoothly. In the past, we read more books, managed to make more friends without Facebook, and enjoyed lazy afternoons looking at our family holiday album without having to open an Instagram account.

Even though our letters took time to reach their destination, the joy of opening those scented pages of posted letters was unmatched. It is incredible that the planet is teeming with billions of people, but one of the biggest problems in the world today is loneliness. This is in spite of having smartphones in our pockets that can connect us at the a touch of a button. So why are we so addicted to our phones? Is it because we are actually employing our smartphones to cure loneliness? Maybe that’s not entirely true but certainly holds some amount of logic, which is why we can’t imagine a life without something that never existed few years ago. Maybe it’s time we go for a digital detox this Ramadan. Consciously, choose to put your phone away for some time and use that opportunity to do something else. Take a long walk by the sea, spend time with your grandparents, volunteer for something — for the sake of the greater good.

■ The reader is a freelance writer and resident of Dubai.