The other day I was running Callum to his mate's house, and I was listening to Nihal on 5 Live. Nihal is brilliant, one of the cleverest journalists I've ever heard on the radio, but I remember him from his Radio 1 days, and he just makes me smile every time I hear him.
He was fascinatingly discussing with two journalists the concept of fast news.
But when they got into the conversation, they were all admitting that it was impossible for them to get off Twitter and how distracted they were and how their work would be better if they could get off it and they were arguing between themselves about whether it would be possible to turn their phone off for Christmas Day and not pick it up.
What the f*ck!
Is it not possible for anyone to turn their phone off for a day, particularly Christmas Day?
Is it not possible for any of us to walk away?
We live in the West and we talk about freedom, but we are trapped, and we are enslaved, and we are chained to our devices.
Earlier in the year, I was privileged to be asked by my friend and mentor, John Gibson, to speak at the first Canmore Trust wellbeing day in Dentistry, which is based around the Canmore’s work of prevention and postvention in suicide.
It's kind of hard to talk about suicide in forums like that when you watch everybody pick up their phones and you wonder how much the phone usage is killing the young men and women (but more men) with the fear of missing out and comparison, stealing their joy and all of those things that lead people to a place of darkness and despair and unworthiness.
It's kind of like eating a MICHELIN star dinner while the world is burning outside, and so not being on social media is a choice, and it's quite hard but it is an example, and it sets you free, and we have a responsibility to set an example to show people what freedom is.
Blog Post Number - 3309
We have recently launched the 7th episode of our ‘Nothing but the Tooth’ podcast and for this episode Colin explores the in-depth subject of paradigms and the curiosity about why people get stuck in belief systems.
Please have a listen by clicking below!
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