Decoding And Overcoming Smartphone Addiction Sýnishorn

Apostle Peter and Smartphone Addiction 

  Sandee LaMotte wrote, “Researchers have also found that the blue light emitted from our cell phones and other internet devices can disrupt melatonin production  and therefore our sleep” (CNN website, 1 Dec 2017 post). Yes, extended and unbridled smartphone use does affect our eyes. 

Eyes and addictions can often go together according to the Bible!

Apostle Peter wrote these words when he described the false prophets of his time: ‘They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them."’(2 Pet. 2:19, NIV). He also writes that these very same false prophets, “have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” (2 Pet. 2:14 ESV). Two things Apostle Peter mentions sort of describes an addicted smartphone user: 1. He/She is a slave to the phone 2. He/She has eyes that “have to” constantly stare at the smartphone screen, or else they will be utterly satisfied. 

Extended “eye” time for smartphones can lead to temptations like porn-surfing, sexting, or fornication and so we must be careful. Tribhuvan Tiwari writing for the 3 November 2014 issue of Outlook magazine, one of India’s leading news magazines talks about how a “nice-looking” young man in India used a smartphone app I will not name, “swiped right” (to use that particular app’s terminology), to connect with three different women he never ever met in his locality. Within thirty minutes, he had one-night stands with them. And these sexual encounters, he never saw them again. 

It is true - if we are not careful, the smartphone we are addicted to, can trigger the “eyes full of adultery” in us.

Even if we do not do anything sinful during the long hours of our daily phone use, the fact that we are addicted to the phone, displeases the Lord and therefore that is a sin we must repent of!