How To not be addicted to your phone
A Free Verse Poem Inspired By an Embarrassingly True Story
I guess I just can’t be responsible
with my phone.
Not in the same way
as basically everyone else; in fact,
essentially the opposite.
Most teenagers get so distracted by their phones,
spending loads of time just doing trivial things on social media,
or absorbed in playing video games,
and can’t focus very well.
For me, that result does happen…
but instead on my computer, from studying and designing maps;
watching videos about language, society, and Star Wars;
or my imagination randomly filling with story ideas,
then thinking, planning, and typing meticulously
when I probably ought to be doing schoolwork
(perpetual distractions arising from my attention-deficit disorder);
…all while I rarely bring my phone to school.
And when I do,
and place it in a phone caddy for some classes,
I’ve then accidentally forgotten to retrieve it afterward--
not often accustomed to bringing it with me, much less using it--
so I’ve left it at school overnight…
half of the times this year.
Sure, phone caddies work to prevent distractions in class--
for the rest of the people who frequently use phones as a distraction
in the first place.
On the other hand,
it’s rather ironic that a modern teenager
could have such a minimal attachment to a phone,
rolling my eyes at everyone else so eagerly picking up their phones
almost simultaneously, when there is no more work to do,
and tapppping and scrolllling constantly as if glued to the screens--
Yet I too stare at a different device, hunching over my computer
in a ‘rabbit hole’ of politics- or linguistics-based articles,
almost as an exchange with handheld technology;
and endlessly plotting both maps and novels
as an exchange for never touching TikTok or TwiXter.
And the other fault of my own, then?
I really can’t seem to remember my phone
the way it is so easy for everyone else to….
Well— now, on the 10% or so of days
when I do bring my phone,
I probably just won’t put it up, because
Somehow I can’t be responsible
with my phone.
(And it’s not like I use it during class anyways. I’m irresponsible with the innumerable distractions on my Chromebook in the ‘standard’ way instead, after all.)
I guess I just can’t be responsible
with my phone.
Not in the same way
as basically everyone else; in fact,
essentially the opposite.
Most teenagers get so distracted by their phones,
spending loads of time just doing trivial things on social media,
or absorbed in playing video games,
and can’t focus very well.
For me, that result does happen…
but instead on my computer, from studying and designing maps;
watching videos about language, society, and Star Wars;
or my imagination randomly filling with story ideas,
then thinking, planning, and typing meticulously
when I probably ought to be doing schoolwork
(perpetual distractions arising from my attention-deficit disorder);
…all while I rarely bring my phone to school.
And when I do,
and place it in a phone caddy for some classes,
I’ve then accidentally forgotten to retrieve it afterward--
not often accustomed to bringing it with me, much less using it--
so I’ve left it at school overnight…
half of the times this year.
Sure, phone caddies work to prevent distractions in class--
for the rest of the people who frequently use phones as a distraction
in the first place.
On the other hand,
it’s rather ironic that a modern teenager
could have such a minimal attachment to a phone,
rolling my eyes at everyone else so eagerly picking up their phones
almost simultaneously, when there is no more work to do,
and tapppping and scrolllling constantly as if glued to the screens--
Yet I too stare at a different device, hunching over my computer
in a ‘rabbit hole’ of politics- or linguistics-based articles,
almost as an exchange with handheld technology;
and endlessly plotting both maps and novels
as an exchange for never touching TikTok or TwiXter.
And the other fault of my own, then?
I really can’t seem to remember my phone
the way it is so easy for everyone else to….
Well— now, on the 10% or so of days
when I do bring my phone,
I probably just won’t put it up, because
Somehow I can’t be responsible
with my phone.
(And it’s not like I use it during class anyways. I’m irresponsible with the innumerable distractions on my Chromebook in the ‘standard’ way instead, after all.)