THINGS FOR LIFE, NOT LIFE FOR THING

Earlier this week, I got chatting with a lady on social and I asked after her wellbeing, she told me that she is not too well. Inquiring further, she promised to tell me what was wrong with her on the condition that I would pray for her; I did agreed to pray with her (not for her) whatever the issue might be. Well, she said what was wrong with her was that she doesn’t has a phone and is making her sick. I did sympathized and empathized with her and in response I gave her my own story. 

April 11th 2014, I bought my first android phone (don’t ask me why I still remember the date please), it was a Tecno P5, the ecstasy could not let me sleep on time, I suppose you can relate with that kind of feeling. As time goes on, I became addicted to my phone, so addicted that it was hard for me to stay a moment without my hands being busy touching it. August 2015, I got my laptop, again, it became so dear to me that spending a night without it by my side felt as if something was missing. Those two occupied a special place in my heart that giving them my full attention came easily, well 2016 ending was the twist in the love story with my two sweethearts. 

November 24th 2016 was the day I found myself in Taraba, North Eastern part of the country for my National Youth Service. Camp was fun, however my darling phone crashed beyond repairs in the second week of camp. It was hard on me because I was unable to capture the moments I needed so effectively with my own phone and couldn’t engage in the social media as I used to. (You know that kind feeling). I planned to work on my first book while serving because I had high hopes and assurance that I would be posted to the state capital, until I received my posting letter and what I saw sent chill down my pines – a village without light and telecommunication network. 

I spent five months without a phone, and the entire service year without my beloved laptop because there was no need to carry it along to a village without light, it was indeed a circumcision year for me. It was hard, painful but I had to be detached from my addiction and dependency on technology so I can see life from a different perspective. Well, I did survived and came out stronger, I had a shift of priorities, valued life without needing any other thing to validate it. So much of me, after telling her my story, I added that in as much as I needed those two gadgets and it would have been great for me to have them, I did not need them to VALIDATE me. 

I am not anti-technology, I am a technology freak. I am not against you having or acquiring gadgets, no, by all means get as much gadgets as you need. All those become problem only when your life revolves around them, when you need them to validate your identity and define your purpose. They become an issue when you feel you can’t not live a day without them or feel totally incomplete without them. 

True, surviving in the 21st century without being technology compliance leaves you an archaic object, lagging behind when it comes to the reality of the day. We need phones, laptops and other related gadgets to communicate, learn, research, network and do other important things, but we do not need them to validate us or make us complete. This may not sit down well with you but please try and see it from another perspective if you happen to be addicted to one of those. Having them is good but doesn’t make you more of a person any more than not having them make you less of a person. The bottom line here is in the purpose, usage, value derived and as to whether we own them or the possessed us. 

What is your relationship with your technological gadgets? How addicted or obsessive are you with them? Do you feel less of a person without them? Do you feel as if something is missing without them? One thing I did learned in my service year is that we need life first to enjoy things and not things to enjoy life. Hence, if you have not come to properly define your life independent of things (technology inclusive), you will forever define your life through the lenses of THINGS, daily needing them to validate you. Life is more than that. 

Those things were made by us and for us and not us for them, do not let them be the parameters with which you define and measure life. Use them, make them serve you and not the other way round because they are things for life not life for things. 

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