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As I prepare to replace my stolen phone, I’m making a choice. I’m taking back control. My phone will be a tool, not a chain. It won’t own me anymore.

Dear friend,

Sorry.

Yesterday’s Nation First newsletter didn’t go out. Why? Because my phone was stolen. That’s right — gone. One moment, it was in my pocket, and the next, I was cut off from everything. No phone calls. No emails in my pocket. No endless stream of updates.

And let me tell you, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Losing a phone isn’t just losing a gadget — it’s like having your connection to the entire modern world ripped out of your hands. You can’t function, can’t communicate, can’t exist without it — or at least, that’s what they want you to believe.

At first, I panicked. I mean, wouldn’t you? But something incredible happened. As the days stretched on, a strange feeling took over. Freedom. Actual, undeniable freedom. For the first time in years, I wasn’t tethered to a glowing screen, constantly interrupted by buzzing notifications and mindless distractions. It made me realise just how much of my life has been devoured by this little device.

And now, I’ve got a question for you: how much of your life has been taken by it?

Are You a Prisoner of Your Own Phone?

Let’s get real here. How often do you pick up your phone? Five times an hour? Ten? You’re not just checking it — you’re chained to it. And don’t kid yourself: it’s not just a tool. It’s an extension of you, tracking where you go, what you do, even what you think.

Four days without my phone felt like waking up from a nightmare. No interruptions. No GPS. No social media. And the last one is critical because, for many, it becomes a constant dopamine drip keeping them in line. Without it, we start noticing things — the real world. Our surroundings. Our own thoughts, free from the filters of algorithms.

For some, I can imagine going tech-free would be like stepping out of a fog and realising the life they’d been living was not even their own. How many of us are still trapped in such a fog? How many of us are living in a world controlled by notifications and glowing screens?

The Lie of Convenience: Your Freedom for Their Power

We’ve been lied to. They told us technology would make life better, easier, more connected. But what has it done? It’s turned us into addicts. Slaves to a system designed not to liberate us but to control us.

Think about it: your phone tracks everything. Your location. Your conversations. Your habits. And it’s all fed into a system that profits from your every move. Every beep, every little “ping,” is a string pulling you deeper into their web. And don’t think for a second that they’re doing it for your benefit. This is about control.

And social media is anything but social. It is certainly not connecting us — it’s actually done the opposite. Families sit at the dinner table, each staring into their screens. Friends meet up only to scroll their feeds. Conversations aren’t conversations anymore — they’re just interruptions between notifications. Michael Warren Davis, contributing editor to The American Conservative, hit the nail on the head when he said: “Social media robs us of our humanity.”

And he’s not wrong. But it goes deeper. As Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Man, discovered when he stepped away from modern technology, these gadgets are more than distractions. They’re the tools of a system that commodifies our time, separates us from the natural world, and makes us dependent on powers far beyond our control.

This isn’t just about your phone. This is about your freedom.

Fight Back: Reclaim Your Life

Let me ask you something: when was the last time you put your phone down and actually lived? When was the last time you sat with your family, undistracted? The last time you had a conversation that wasn’t interrupted by a notification?

Losing my phone has forced me to see just how much of my time, my energy, my life I’d handed over to a device. And if it happened to me, it’s happening to you too.

Here’s the hard truth: we’ve sold our freedom for convenience, and the price is our very humanity. But it doesn’t have to stay this way.

Turn off the notifications. Put the phone down at dinner. Take a day — or just an hour — and unplug. Walk outside. Talk to your family. Look at the world around you. Because if you don’t, you’re not just losing time — you’re surrendering your freedom.

Wake Up Before It’s Too Late

As I prepare to replace my stolen phone, I’m making a choice. I’m taking back control. My phone will be a tool, not a chain. It won’t own me anymore.

What about you? What would one day without your phone look like? Could you do it? Would you even dare?

This isn’t just about you. It’s about all of us. Because every second you spend staring at that screen is a second they win. It’s time to wake up. It’s time to fight back. The system only controls you if you let it.

Don’t let it.

Until next time, God bless you, your family and nation.

Take care,

George Christensen

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Republished with thanks to Nation First. Image courtesy of Unsplash.