Battling for sanity in an information war

Inspired by the theme of The Jewish Independent’s podcast Ashamed to Admit, I have a confession to make. I’m ashamed to admit I’ve been unable to put my phone down for the last eight months.

Propelled by October 7, my phone addiction has become severe and out of hand.

It wails for me like a newborn through the night. It follows me into the shower where I now wear wireless earphones while listening to podcasts. I’m trapped in an audio maelstrom of political debate, public opinion and seething outrage.

Physically I’m in Perth but mentally I’m thousands of kilometres away, drowning in a tsunami of distress. Permanently distracted. Deeply disturbed. My phone never leaves my side.

I’m writing this at 5:21am, wired and restless. For eight months I’ve woken at odd hours in a panic, reaching for my phone, desperate to know what fresh hell has been unleashed overnight. I think of tunnels, bombs and carnage, bodies charred, desecrated and buried under rubble. The obscene scale of destruction, depravity, destitution and desperation. Of too many lives cut short and forever changed.