 What are some practical steps that we can take that can help us with screen addiction? Are there some steps that we can take? Yes There are a number of steps that we can take First of all the first starting point my dear brothers and sisters when it comes to limiting our use of our smartphones is to keep track of how much time you're spending in In fact, there are apps for this you can download an app that will track how much time you're using and it gives you a beautiful Breakdown it tells you how much time you spent on safari how much time on whatsapp How much time on Facebook Instagram snapchat? It gives you the breakdown. It's good for you to know because oftentimes you don't know Once you start tracking yourself. You realize. Oh, wow. I'm spending four hours a day on these things That in itself helps you Control the time that you spend on this. It's very important to keep track of time And subhanAllah and the religion of Islam 14 centuries ago the prophet and the ahl al-bayt peace be upon them They gave us this golden key of tree keeping track of everything that you do Malam yuhaseb nafsahu fi kulli laylatin fa laysemina The hadith says if you don't keep track of what you did during the day every night If you don't judge yourself every night Then you're not one of the ahl al-bayt because naturally you will steer away from their path every night Keep track of what you do. Ask yourself. How was my day today? What did I do today? Go over your day. Take out a piece of paper and even write it down If you came across good things that you did be thankful to Allah Imam alaihi salam in one beautiful hadith teaches us He says be thankful to Allah. Say Oh Allah you enabled me to do this good You gave me the power and the energy and the strength. Thank you Allah for allowing me to do these good activities and be determined that next day you'll do more and If God forbid you came across sins on that day mishaps Mistakes I wronged others. I violated others. I fell short on my obligations with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib says ask Allah for forgiveness If you ask Allah forgiveness on that same night, and you sincerely mean it Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Forgives you keep track And that's why the hadith says my dear brothers and sisters Hasibu an fusakum qabla an tuhasibu You reckon yourself and judge yourself before you're judged on the day of judgment The day of judgment is a day of surprises for many people It's a day of surprises because we don't keep track of what we do Imagine if one sin a day You kind of have to be angelic to just commit one sin a day, right? If you've lived for 60 years, how many days is that? That's almost 20,000 days if one sin per day. That's 20,000 sins Imagine standing before Allah who gave you everything and you violated his law 20,000 times But we can stop this and it starts with muhassibat and nefs by reckoning ourselves and keeping track of what we do My dear brothers and sisters Imam Ali says ask Allah to forgive you and he will and be determined that tomorrow You won't repeat the same mistakes. You won't commit the same sins. It really is effective and works So the first tip my dear brothers and sisters is to track how much time are you spending on your screen on your iPad on your phone? This in itself helps you control that time that you use and reduce it such that it's only beneficial The second tip my dear brothers and sisters Turn off all notifications that you have on all your social media apps That's the best advice I can give you believe me Because once there's that notification you can't resist the urge Turn it off the sound and even the notification itself and even these apps Allah they use human psychology in order to Make you addicted to their apps even the notifications the the style that they use the color that they use usually It's red right well Why do you think they use the color red because that's a color that immediately stimulates you psychologically turn it off Turn off the notifications. It's not the end of the world. Believe me Nobody's gonna die on Facebook and you immediately have to get to their message and their notification to save their lives Let's be realistic. That's not the case If you want peace of mind my dear brothers and sisters turn off most of the notifications that you have Most of them are unnecessary. They're just a distraction to get us addicted to these phones So we use more and more these apps and the companies all they care is the billions of dollars that they're making That's a very good tip that I could share with you a third tip my dear brothers and sisters. I Know most of us are guilty of this. I myself sometimes I'm guilty of this Don't charge your phone in your bedroom next to your bed Because once your phone is always within your reach, you know what you'll end up doing before you sleep You're gonna open it and check your messages. Check whatever you want on your smartphone for a good 20 30 minutes Even some people they wake up in the middle of the night and The first thing they do when they wake up they turn on their phone and they read the notifications In addition to all of that my dear brothers and sisters There are so many health risks by keeping these gadgets so close to your body all the time Do you know the amount of radiation that's generated by these devices by the cellular line by the Wi-Fi by the battery All this is radiation and this is harmful One great way to control the amount of time that you use on these phones and to break that addiction My dear brothers and sisters keep it away from you at least when you're sleeping You can use an alarm clock believe me if you're concerned about waking up It's okay. Get a nice alarm clock and put it next to you and you won't go late to school You won't go late to work These these days kids kids You find them young teenagers 10 year olds 11 year olds. They have their smart smart smartphones next to their beds And that is leading to a number of negative consequences a fourth tip my dear brothers and sisters is that when it comes to limiting our Use of smartphones and to kind of break that addiction or have a control and grasp on that addiction Is to have certain times of the day Where you make it a policy you make it a law that you will not use the smartphone for example dinner time These days when people are having dinner even on the dinner table You see the father the mother the brother the sister. They're on their smartphone even on the dinner table Even these 30 minutes you can't have quality time with your family Have a policy in your house Where at dinner time? No one goes near their smartphone. Just sit there have a good quality time with your family members It's really effective if you institute this policy and you have that sense of awareness It will really be impactful my dear brothers and sisters There are some people who really have a lot of addiction. They will even have one day of the week on A Sunday on a Saturday. They decide, you know what call us enough is enough today. I have nothing to do with my phone Let me go out take a walk in the park Spend some good time with my family with my friends do something productive And let me break free from my phone There are even institutions today. I know you might think this is crazy, but it's happening there are institutions today that have Retreats and camps just to keep you away from your smartphone Because they've realized this is such a big issue, especially amongst teenagers That they actually need to have retreats just to keep you away from your phone for three four days So you have that willpower to stay focused and not be so distracted The root of this my dear brothers and sisters is that we the human beings and this is an old problem It's difficult for us just to sometimes sit Clear our minds and contemplate the media Big corporations, they don't want you to think They want you to always be busy Distracted doing something. That's why the 17th century Philosopher and scientist Pascal he has a beautiful statement He says the misery of man is that he cannot sit Alone in his room and just think have some time with himself And subhanallah look at the Quran how it describes the believers. They're very active They're very proactive and productive, but they give that time between them and their Lord Alladheena yatafakkaruna fi khalq al-samawati wal-arum Sometimes just sit and look at the stars and think Contemplate that's why the religion of Islam says one hour of Contemplation has more value than 70 units of ibadah 70 rakahs of salah Because once you develop the habit of thinking contemplating Contemplating about your life where you stand where you're going What your destination is what your priorities are once you have that habit you're a strong human being who has willpower You will not be someone controlled by the media by your society and That's why a believer is one who is independent in his thinking in her thinking But these distractions don't let you achieve that independence in your thinking Institute a time of the day where you're away from all these distractions and focus on something productive my dear brothers and sisters