Smart Emmanuel: How to Navigate Distractions in the Digital Age

Have you ever wished for more time? Has the day ever ended, leaving you wondering how quickly it passed? Worse still, have you ever felt so tired yet achieved so little? You haven’t done any real work but feel drained, with low energy levels? There are several reasons for this.

In a world where everything is accessible via your smartphone and the internet, we are constantly distracted by irresistible skits, videos, and pictures from strangers, friends, and family. When you escape it on Instagram, you get stuck on WhatsApp status or a link to a TikTok or Snapchat video. If you try to be too serious, an interesting post on LinkedIn might catch your eye, leading you to Google more about the topic while all your planned tasks for the day suffer. The distractions are constantly in our faces, and before you realise how much time you’ve spent on the internet, your important hours are exhausted. It is important to ask ourselves, what kind of person must we become to maximise the 24 hours we have each day?

In the past, all we had was TV. Local TV stations had our lives planned for us because we could only watch movies at night and watch the news for one hour. But now we have 24-hour news networks. You can watch thousands of movies non-stop, and you can watch hundreds of thousands of music videos. You have millions of music selections you can listen to anytime. You can read millions of stories or books anytime, anywhere. We have too much of everything, anytime we want it.

According to statistics, the average person spends over 3 hours per day on their phone, which totals more than 20 hours a week. Another report by the American Psychological Association found that multitasking with digital devices can reduce productivity by up to 40%. This constant influx of information and entertainment significantly impacts productivity and focus.

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We deserve to have fun and enjoy the gift of unlimited content and entertainment, but we must also learn to manage our time and avoid distractions. These should not replace the necessary work we need to do to achieve our goals. They must not encroach on our reading time as students, our work time as employees or entrepreneurs, or our time for spiritual growth and connection with God. While addictive, these fun distractions should be treated as such, and we should only engage with them when our schedule allows.

It’s challenging to label these activities as distractions because many social media posts, YouTube videos, and movies can be helpful. However, just as it’s wrong to close your eyes to pray while driving—not because prayer is wrong but because the time is inappropriate—it’s also wrong to use time meant for other tasks to indulge in social media, movies, 24-hour news networks, or internet browsing. The point is to allocate and schedule specific times for these activities.

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Feature Image by Ketut Subiyanto for Pexels