Habits are hard to die...

Habits are hard to form, but they are harder to overcome. Why do we need to overcome habits? For a simple reason— not all habits are good or beneficial. Smoking is one thing that pops into mind instantly.

Would you believe there was a time when the driver used to smoke in the car or a co-passenger on the flight used to smoke? Come to think of it, many people might have carried the symptoms of passive smoking.

They say it is not a good practice to pick up your mobile phone as soon as you wake up. Sometimes it almost becomes part of a reflexive action, it seems. That state is not ideal because we have not had a quiet moment to reflect before we start the day. According to experts, it becomes an ingrained conditioning. So, could it be phone addiction? Do you remember the term nomophobia? The Internet overuse problem is still lingering. And the demographics are expanding.

The reasons could be many. Children are losing contact with each other and family members because they find contentment in playing games. They are almost losing communication skills.

Is their motivation misplaced? They want to win in the games, but their virtual reality takes up so much of their time that they are missing out on real life. Their minds are filled with images from the games.

Then there is social media. One has no idea who is going to be their role model. All this is when they are at home. There is another group addicted to their mobile phones, and they are all above 18.

This is because they are the ones with driving licences. Now, maybe driving can fall into the category of automatic actions. It is a skill that becomes second nature because people drive almost every day.

When we learn to drive, the instructor teaches us to hold the wheel in position—either at 10 to 2 or quarter to 3. But after a few months, it becomes an art, and soon there is an element of ease and a bit of overconfidence. Then we slip into the habit of answering calls.

For a person who has had a road mishap, there is never enough emphasis on the importance of concentrating on the road. It is better to be a defensive driver than to regret later.

Expecting the worst might sound like negative thinking. The reality is one might be an efficient driver, but others on the road might not be. Out of curiosity, I started observing drivers one afternoon. There was not much traffic because of the odd time, but in a stretch of almost 13 km, I came across at least 10 people using their mobile phones while driving.

This meant that one of their hands was occupied with a phone. In the midst of their conversations, some were changing lanes and overtaking. Worse still, some were checking text messages.

Reading messages means their eyes had shifted focus from the road to a small screen—reading, comprehending and formulating a reply.

The road and its happenings had taken a back seat. Lives are precious, and each day is a gift for us to unwrap. That is not all; there are others who depend on you. That second or minute we take to check a message could be detrimental to our safety and our future.

Mute the notifications. Our minds already have enough thoughts to process, let alone someone else’s messages. It might be important, but it can wait.

Nothing is as important as life. We have lived in an era without mobile phones, and we were just fine. And if we must answer, then we must park and do so.

But even that takes patience. The urge to change must come from within, and a motivation could be the thought of family.