Having observed how African youth lavish their peak working hours on android phones both at home, on the way, school and work places, leading vocal cleric, Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, the Accra Metropolitan Archbishop of the Catholic Church, has cautioned the youth on the addiction to cell phones.
According to him, the addiction which is growing unnoticed is capable of causing lasting distraction that can ruin youths’ future and self-development.
Palmer-Buckle therefore advised African youths to be self-disciplined when using any kind of electronic gadgets and endeavour to make positive gains by using them to access useful information, which could enhance their development; be it spiritually or professionally.
Explaining more at a Confirmation Service of the St James Catholic Church at Osu in Accra, he called on African youths and Ghanaians in particular saying, “Do not let the cell phone imprison you that is why it is called a cell phone, it puts you into cells, many of you are not aware how much you have become prisoners of this gadget, some of you do not sleep in the night, it is always on and you do not have a good rest”.
He recalled that many android phone users had been fired in their work places due to their addiction to phones.
He added that workers were also guilty when it came to using cell phones, adding; “We go to work and we do not work well and then we are fired. Then we say why is the man firing me? And we excite the TUC and the Unions to go on strike when we know we’ve not been sleeping adequately to enable us to perform better.”
However, to tame the growing addiction, Most Rev. Palmer-Buckle, called on parents to monitor and control the use of electronic devices by their children both in school and home.