Growing up, my dad never allowed my siblings and I to get mobile phones until our final year of high school (you can’t imagine how hard it was keeping a girlfriend).
When I eventually got mine, I became so engrossed with it; never catching a break, catching up on Facebook and MSN (which were big back then). Suffice to say, I started putting on weight, because I stopped playing football or engaging in any physical activity. I became unhealthy.
Being the sports prefect and captain of the Greensprings School football team didn’t help matters either. I was so neck-deep in my phone-binge that my starting place in the team was getting uncertain until my dad’s words changed my life forever.
He said, “Son, get yourself some fresh air”. He further went on to say with a cheeky smile, “or your girlfriend would be getting a fresh boyfriend”. At that point it dawned on me that I had been so engrossed with my phone that I lost touch of reality. Things I enjoyed doing like playing football and socialising were now akin to old photos in my Facebook archive.
With the advancement in tech, many of us have forgotten the therapeutic impact of human interaction, forgetting that machines were made to serve man and not man being enslaved to machines. That, my dad, knew all along.
Advice Papa Gave Me written by: Chukwuemeka Anyiam-Osigwe