Picking up the pieces of my broken attention span
I'd call myself a recovering social media addict. Against my better judgement I had become "that guy" who had hours-per-day wasted on Instagram or worse, X, consuming the miserable content of others of which I shall never remember.
I swear, I used to take pride that I never used Instagram reels, nor had TikTok, or found any reason to participate on X, but I think my nine months of unemployment may have contributed to my desire for stimulation - yeah, right. OVERSTIMULATION to the point of apathy, more like.
To break the cycle, I had to give myself a reality check. If I go just one week without scrolling mindlessly on any social media, that will be the longest streak in years without doomscrolling, just a week, God, it's more like two days.
I believed social media was once rather enjoyable. In my ideal world, social media offers a chronological feed that prioritises updates from your friends, families and selected interests, much like how it all USED to be before algorithmic feeds became dominant.
My goal is to CHOOSE - that's right - CHOOSE to not scroll. You and I can achieve that. All of us at some point in the day are looking for an "escape", a time to unwind, and we have been conditioned to be lulled to numbness by reels, shorts, TikToks, as if it were our best and safest time-killer.
Understanding that we can replace that itch with a myriad of other leisures is crucial, doomscrolling has become this default idle state. That is the first step in breaking the cycle - you need a new way to spend idle time. I am being as serious as I can be, a ten minute nap will do wonders for your nervous system, far more than scrolling.
Take naps, don't doomscroll.