Are You Using It, or Is It Using You?

Denzel Washington once asked a simple question: “Are you using your phone, or is your phone using you?”

It’s a question that lingers. Because when I look around — and when I look at myself — I see how often we’re on our phones, but not really in the moment. We might be sitting at the dinner table with family, or eating out with friends, yet half our attention is elsewhere, swallowed by a glowing screen.

It’s easy to dismiss it as modern life. But maybe something deeper is happening. Maybe, without realising it, we’ve become slaves — not in the historical sense that must never be forgotten, but in the quiet, modern sense of surrendering control.

Are you a slave to work? A slave to a habit? To social media? To the approval of others? To the endless scroll?

When does the thing you love — or the thing you rely on — begin to own you?

Even in the pursuit of excellence, there’s a fine line. To become a master of your craft, do you have to become a slave to it? Is total devotion a path to greatness… or to bondage? Perhaps discipline and obsession look similar on the surface — both demand effort, repetition, and sacrifice. But one is chosen freely; the other consumes freedom.

And maybe that’s the real question: Is your work, your device, your passion — still a choice? Or has it become a compulsion that quietly dictates who you are, what you do, and how you live?

True mastery — and true living — requires freedom. Freedom to choose, to pause, to be present. Freedom to put the phone down, to say no, to walk away.

We are not meant to be slaves to anyone or anything. We are meant to be free. To choose. To be aware. To be here.