You might say I’m no expert on addiction, but I would disagree.  I’ve been around addiction and addicts my entire life. 

And the odds are, even if you think you’ve never been addicted to something, you’re wrong. It’s not always a bad thing, either. 

Drug addiction, gambling, alcoholism — those are considered “bad” addictions. 

‘Even if you think you’ve never been addicted to something, you’re wrong.’

But what about being addicted to your work? To your favorite sport or your fitness? To philanthropy? To your lover? 

That’s not so bad. Or even pretty good. In some cases, pretty damn good. 

But what about an addiction to your phone? Hmmm. 

You know you are addicted to your phone if, as you read that sentence above to yourself, you felt a moment of guilt or defensiveness, or anger with me for calling you out. 

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Screened Out

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I know the feeling. And you can’t hide it from the rest of the world even if you’ve been doing a fine job of hiding it from yourself. 

After all, it’s easy to hide something like this from yourself when you’re surrounded by lots of others who are pretending the same thing. 

Are you surrounded by lots of others who are pretending the same thing? 

Or to put it another way:

How often do you hear drunks at a bar talking about alcoholism? (Hint: Not often, or only as a joke.)

So you’re addicted to your phone, right?

Okay. Your choice. (Actually, just sort of your choice, if you believe the Netflix documentary called The Social Dilemma)

But what about your kids?

You wouldn’t do anything to turn them into addicts, right?

You wouldn’t give them booze. You wouldn’t give them crack. 

Yet you give them your phone. And then a phone of their own.

Hmmm.

Would you please let us, and filmmaker Jon Hyatt, and his film Screened Out change your mind about your kids and their screens?