Tony L

I struggled with social media and facebook addiction for 5-6 years. I was consumed by my phone. It got to a point where I realised I was addicted, so I tried to find help. I found support groups and programs for other well-known addictions, but there was literally nothing for technology addictions. Here I was having self diagnosed, but now there was no help for me! For the next couple of years, I documented my anxiety around how I felt if I left my phone at home, and how many times I picked it up during the day. I wanted to solve my own problem. I was discovering that my addiction affected my world view, my relationships, and how I saw others. It messed up my emotional intelligence, and I was being governed by what I saw and read online. As I gained my freedom, I felt like I was unplugged from the matrix! Then I looked around and saw everyone was on their phones. So I created a facebook page for my siblings and my cousins to get them thinking about their own device and habits. Lots of them were babysitting their kids with YouTube – just like I used to. People started to notice and groups started to contact me. I’ve been in schools, universities, the DHB and other spaces, sharing the wisdom around device and gaming addiction. I had no intention for this to be anything so I’m so proud that I was able to set this up as a business and to be able to help and serve people with their social media and device addictions.