Is it a sin to be addicted to your phone?

As you read this article, probably on your phone, think about how much time you spend on it and whether it is having a negative effect on your life.

When the smartphone was introduced, many were excited at the possibilities and looked at it with admiration and awe.

At the time it was seen a tool that would change the world, making everyone’s lives easier and helping everyone achieve a greater amount of happiness in this life.

Many still hold to this view, but increasingly more people are seeing the negative side effects of excessive smartphone.

The problem is that smartphones are extremely addicting, and it is difficult to put them down for longer than a few seconds.

For many of us, we can’t go anywhere without it, even taking it with us when going to the bathroom.

From a spiritual point of view, is there anything wrong with being addicted to a smartphone?

Isn’t is just “fun and games”?

No longer recreation

In some ways using a smartphone can be placed under the category of “amusements” or “entertainment.” It contains many applications that provide a respite from the world around us.

Yet, excessive use of a smartphone at some point begins to work against us.

St. Francis de Sales wrote about the danger of spending too much time on amusements in his Introduction to the Devout Life:

[O]ne must avoid excess, either in the time given to them, or the amount of interest they absorb; for if too much time be given up to such things, they cease to be a recreation and become an occupation; and so far from resting and restoring mind or body, they have precisely the contrary effect.

He further explains that the worst thing we can do is to give our heart to such an amusement.

But, above all, beware of setting your heart upon any of these things, for however lawful an amusement may be, it is wrong to give one’s heart up to it. Not that I would not have you take pleasure in what you are doing,—it were no recreation else,—but I would not have you engrossed by it, or become eager or over fond of any of these things.

Does our smartphone have our heart?

Or does our smartphone distract us from fulfilling our duties at work or home?

Would we rather be on our smartphone, or sitting in a pew for Mass on Sunday?

God didn’t give a commandment, “Thou shall not use thy smartphone too much,” but he did give us the faculty of reason and the Church to guide us.

The next time you go to confession, tell the priest about your obsession with your smartphone and he will be able to help you discern whether or not it is a sin.