Fighting Social Media Addiction: To Restart Writing
3 Things Helping Get My Mojo Back
Where have I been for the past two and half years and what has brought me back to this friendly thought-space? In this return piece, I bring you up to date and aim to give our Medium excursion a renewed sense of direction.
Travel
In the world of flesh and bone, I have now established a regular tour to Bosnia and Herzegovina for Muslim travellers with a holiday agency. It has been amazing to research and prepare for the trips with an expert team of likeminded folk. These travels will be covered here, as everything is interconnected.
Even whilst doing touristy stuff, by a river, it proved hard to escape the creeping rise of the far right, in Europe, this July. During a visit to the famous bridge of Mostar, despite the heat I shivered hearing a young Croat tour guide asked by his German guests about the mass murder of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990’s.
‘If everyone…’ — he nodded towards the Hijabi women on my tour, paddling nearby, ‘would behave ‘normally’ such things would not happen…”
When I challenged the fact that he was deliberately ignoring a genocidal protocol which led to mass murder, he doubled down with ‘did you see what the immigrant did to those little girls in the UK?’
If you are new here, this is how I write. I observe the world around — through overheard conversations, taxi rides, time spent out of my comfort zone: a journalistic nomad — with a spiritual anchor.
Back to my absence. I continue to work as an ambassador for Iqra Turkiye, whose work focuses on Northern Syria and Turkish earthquake survivors.
Engage With Community
This month, I spent 10 days with my friends from Gaza, whilst delivering prosthetic limbs to amputees, who have swapped injury or death, for an uncertain future in Cairo, Egypt. What I learnt from that experience will be my first full article back here.
Now, it is time for an admission. I believe it is vital we communicate in a natural, honest, way. Especially, in this age of AI and online influencers renting Hollywood mansions and Lamborghini’s to sell trashy ‘coaching’ courses. None of that here, God willing.
So, here it is, my less inspiring reason for the long break in writing.
Since Summer 2022, I have been stuck, eye-deep, in screen time: the Lala land of Instagram and Youtube.
It started innocently enough, with friends and colleagues convincing me to post more and set up my own Youtube channel.
I come from a background of addiction. The whole smart phone/social media thing was never going to be a ‘one hit’ buzz, not for me. Like Marlborough lights and rizla paper, in a long bygone age, my mandibles began to reach, constantly, for a ‘quick scroll’ here and a timeline check, there. What began with purpose led to a reduction in my ability to listen to long form podcasts with focus, let alone deep-dive articles without skimming or ‘top and tailing’ information. Like all junkies I became adept at calling out others failings, whilst excusing my own weakness.
I remember asking a Youtube travel influencer with 1.5m subscribers, how he coped with the the whole scroll, check, comment, share, rabbit hole. What he told me has stayed with me:
‘I post a video and then delete the app and get on with life. It’s the only way.’
Deep Learning in a group setting
What has really helped me look above the android parapet, is studying at the feet of enlightened teachers, surrounded by likeminded seekers of knowledge. By Allah’s grace, I am now in my second year of the Suhba Seminary in Istanbul.
More on the Suhba and the adventures of a lay person towards self restraint (not actualisation!) coming soon, inshallah.
It seems, as of today, I am back. Back to writing, to thinking, musing, mulling over words, seeking to draw lessons and make sense of cultural, faith and current realities.
With a fair wind and prayer on my lips, it is my hope we can move together, towards the light, on this journey.
If you found this piece illuminating, please consider buying Lauren Booth’s memoir, In Search of A Holy Land. The ebook and audiobook combined are just $9.99.
You can find information on her next Bosnia tours via Holiday Bosnia
