Phone addiction: Look Up 4



Recently I was sitting on our freeway here in Perth, in gridlocked peak hour traffic. As I looked across the cars on our highway I could see an open platform of our train station.

On that station platform, there would have been 100 people standing there in the cool of the morning, waiting for their train to take them off into their day. Most people on the platform were wearing suits, and school uniforms and I watched them and started to think about all of their lives.

The thing that shocked me about this group of people that morning, is out of the 100 people on the platform, 99 of them were looking down into their phones. No one was speaking and there was this one lady who was looking up into the day.

I wonder how much we miss out on, whilst our phones make us feel close to people who live far away, they disconnect us from people in our today.

Psalm 46: 10 says:

Step out of the traffic, take a long loving look at me. Your God, above politics, above everything.

This week, why don’t we make a pact to look up more.


About Amanda

Amanda Viviers has published ten books and is a presenter on radio across New Zealand and Australia. She is also the co-founder of Kinwomen; a network created to inspire women to start conversations that matter. Head of Narrative for Compassion Australia, she is driven by a passion for social justice, she loves supporting projects for women in developing countries. Teaching women to live creative lives, beyond the circumstances, is something she pursues daily. Wife of Charl and Mum of Maximus and Liberty, she lives a creative life, longing to see people live inspired. Pinterest/ Twitter/ @Mandaviviers Instagram: @amandaviviers Facebook: @amandaviviersperth

4 thoughts on “Phone addiction: Look Up

  • d. Watson

    if you are on a train or bus – ‘wasting time’ instead of gridlocked (!) it is interesting to see how many people are aware of others or their surroundings. You MAY see families or couples in conversation, but by and large its the screen, phone or ear-buds and they miss the simple things that are out there and just above eye-level.

  • Simone Pietsch

    Love this Amanda. As a Mum I find it such a distraction and find myself thinking “why am I even looking at this?”
    Anytime I just want my own space or the kids are driving me crazy I retreat to this tiny screen that is not enriching my life at all but taking away from it.
    It’s a daily struggle I’m trying to break the habit of!

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