How to Break Free from Screen Addiction?

What can we do? What are some practical steps that we can take that can help us with screen addiction? Are there some steps that we can take? Yes, there are a number of of steps that we can take.

First of all, the first starting point, my dear brothers and sisters, when it comes to limiting our use of our smartphones, is to keep track of how much time you are spending. In fact, there are apps for this. You can download an app that will track how much time you are using, and it gives you a beautiful breakdown. It tells you how much time you spent on safari, how much time on WhatsApp, how much time on Facebook, instagram, snapchat. It gives you the breakdown. It is good for you to know, because often times you do not know.

Once you start tracking yourself, you realize,"oh, wow, I am spending 4 hours a day on these things". That in itself helps you control the time that you spend on this. It is very important to keep track of time and Subhana Allah in the religion of Islam, fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet and the Ahl al-Bayt peace be upon them, they gave us this golden key of keeping track of everything that you do.

"Man lam yuhasib nafsahu fi kulli laylatin fa laysa minna". The hadith says, "if you do not keep track of what you did during the day, every night. If you do not judge yourself every night, then you are not one of the Ahl al-Bayt, because naturally you will steer away from their path. Every night, keep track of what you do. Ask yourself: how was my day today? What did I do today? Go over your day, take out a piece of paper and even write it down. If you came across good things that you did, be thankful to Allah. Imam Ali, alayhi as-salam, in one beautiful hadith teaches us, he says, "be thankful to Allah. "Say, oh Allah, you enabled me to do this good. You gave me the power and the energy and the strength. Thank you Allah, for allowing me to do these good activities."And be determined that next day you will do more.

And if, God forbid, you came across sins on that day, mishaps, mistakes, "I wronged others, I violated others, I fell short on my obligations with Allah". Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib says, "ask Allah for forgiveness. If you ask Allah forgiveness on that same night, and you sincerely mean it, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, forgives you. Keep track." And that is why the hadith says - my dear brothers and sisters - "hasibu anfusakum, qabla an tuhasbu". You reckon yourself and judge yourself, before you are judged on the Day of Judgment. The Day of Judgment is a day of surprises for many people. It is a day of surprises, because we do not keep track of what we do.

Imagine if one sin a day, you kind of have to be angelic to just commit one sin a day, right? If you have lived for sixty years, how many days is that? That is almost twenty thousand days. If one sin per day, that is twenty thousand sins. Imagine standing before Allah who gave you everything, and you violated His law twenty thousand times. But we can stop this. And it starts with "Muhasibat an-Nafs", by reckoning ourselves and keeping track of what we do my dear brothers and sisters.

Imam Ali says, "ask Allah to forgive you and He will. And be determined that tomorrow you will not repeat the same mistakes, you will not commit the same sins." It really is effective and works. So the first tip - my dear brothers and sisters - is to track how much time are you spending on your screen, on your iPad, on your phone. This in itself helps you control that time that you use and reduce it such that it is only beneficial.

The second tip, my dear brothers and sisters: turn off all notifications that you have on all your social media apps. That is the best advice I can give you, believe me. Because once there is that notification, you can not resist the urge. Turn it off. The sound, and even the notification itself. And even these apps Subhana Allah, they use human psychology, in order to make you addicted to their apps. Even the notifications: the style that they use, the color that they use. Usually it is red, right? Well, why do you think they use the color red? Because that is a color that immediately stimulates you psychologically. Turn it off!

Turn off the notifications. It is not the end of the world, believe me. Nobody is going to die on Facebook and you immediately have to get to their message and their notification to save their lives. Let's be realistic. That is not the case. If you want peace of mind, my dear brothers and sisters, turn off most of the notifications that you have. Most of them are unnecessary. They are just a distraction to get us addicted to these phones. So we use more and more of these apps. And the companies, all they care is the billions of dollars that they are making.That is a very good tip that I could share with you.

A third tip, my dear brothers and sisters, I know most of us are guilty of this. I myself, sometimes I am guilty of this. Do not charge your phone in your bedroom next to your bed, because once your phone is always within your reach, you know what you end up doing? Before you sleep, you are going to open it and check your messages. Check whatever you want on your smartphone for a good twenty or thirty minutes. Even some people, they wake up in the middle of the night, and the first thing they do when they wake up: they turn on their phone and they read the notifications.

In addition to all of that - my dear brothers and sisters - there are so many health risks by keeping these gadgets so close to your body all the time. Do you know the amount of radiation that is generated by these devices? By the cellular line, by the WiFi, by the battery? All this is radiation and this is harmful. One great way to control the amount of time that you use on these phones. And to break that addiction, my dear brothers and sisters, keep it away from you. At least when you are sleeping. You can use an alarm clock. Believe me, if you are concerned about waking up, it is okay. Get a nice alarm clock and put it next to you. And you will not go late to school, you will not go late to work. These days, kids, you find them- young teenagers, ten year olds, eleven year olds. They have their smartphones next to their beds, and that is leading to a number of negative consequences.

A fourth tip, my dear brothers and sisters, is that when it comes to limiting our use of smartphones and to kind of break that addiction or having control and grasp on that addiction. Is to have certain times of the day where you make it a policy, you make it a law, that you will not use the smartphone. For example, dinner time. These days, when people are having dinner - even on the dinner table - you see the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, they are on their smartphone, even on the dinner table. Even these 30 minutes, you can not have quality time with your family?

Have a policy in your house, where at dinner time, no one goes near their smartphone. Just sit there, have a good quality time with your family members. It is really effective. If you institute this policy and you have that sense of awareness, it will really be impactful, my dear brothers and sisters. There are some people who really have a lot of addiction. They will even have one day of the week, on a Sunday, on a Saturday, they decide, "you know what, khalas. Enough is enough. Today I have nothing to do with my phone. Let me go out, take a walk in the park, spend some good time with my family, with my friends, do something productive and let me break free from my phone."

There are even institutions today, I know you might think this is crazy, but it is happening. There are institutions today that have retreats and camps just to keep you away from your smartphone. Because they have realized this is such a big issue, especially amongst teenagers, that they actually need to have retreats just to keep you away from your phone for three four days. So you have that willpower to stay focused and not be so distracted.

The root of this, my dear brothers and sisters, is that we, the human beings, and this is an old problem. It is difficult for us just to sometimes sit, clear our minds and contemplate.

The media, big corporations, they do not want you to think. They want you to always be busy, distracted, doing something. That is why the 17th century philosopher and scientist Pascal- he has a beautiful statement. He says, "the misery of man is that he can not sit alone in his room and just think, have some time with himself". And Subhana Allah look at the Qur'an. How it describes the believers: they are very active, they are very proactive and productive. But they give that time between them and their Lord: "Alladhina yatafakkaruna ..... Fi khalqi as-samawati wa al-ardh" (3:191).

Sometimes just sit and look at the stars and think. Contemplate! That is why the religion of Islam says "one hour of contemplation has more value than seventy units of ibadah, seventy rak'ahs of salah".

Because once you develop the habit of thinking, contemplating, contemplating about your life, where you stand, where you are going, what your destination is, what your priorities are. Once you have that habit, you are a strong human being who has willpower. You will not be someone controlled by the media, by your society.

And that is why a believer is one who is independent in his thinking, in her thinking. But these distractions do not let you achieve that independence in your thinking. Institute a time of the day when you are away from all these distractions and focus on something productive, my dear brothers and sisters!