Virtual Lent, How Far Would We Get?

Is our Smartphone really an oxymoron after all?

Yesterday I read somewhere that tablets and laptops pale into insignificance when you compare it to a Smartphone. Think about it, your Smartphone is closer and with you more than your significant other half.

The time we spend in our daily virtual world is an addiction and just like sugar addicts get another hit with a cookie, so do the virtual addicts get more of what they crave through the virtual cookies.

Those aptly named and rather ingenious cookies are really bits tailor made to your tastes. Things you like and use a lot, will be dangled in front of your eyes via ads and so forth making it a virtual vicious circle.

We all know how hard it is to get the better of any form of addiction, and perhaps this new-age one might be the hardest to break.

So, just imagine going on your virtual lent ( however long it might be ) and suddenly being inundated with time. Spare time, that you normally dedicated to swiping a finger across the little window in your hand. Time you normally spent with virtual friends can now be spent with real friends...friends that can come over when you have a problem or who can meet you for a cup of coffee.

If you have young children, imagine being present and actually looking and listening to them during a meal? Yes, it sounds rather harsh, but don't you have your eye on that vital message coming through from your virtual ( never to be met ) friends, instead of focusing on the most valuable possession in your life...your children?

Remember that old story about the frogs? If you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will instantly jump out but if you put a frog into a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to the boil, he won't notice and thus perish without fight in the pot...here is my question, are we like the frogs being put into the cold water?

Be honest, at first you actually wondered why you should have and use a Smartphone, but now you are so addicted to it, that you can't imagine a day without it.

Somebody is laughing all the way to the bank by our addiction to the Smartphone as we now can and do shop 24/7...

They say that after doing something new for 21 days, it becomes a habit so perhaps we should aim at getting to 21 days of virtual lent. Well, a virtual Smartphone only lent.

Do you ever wonder if you would be happier without being connected all the time?

Biggi