So true. I appreciate the humor. I wonder if this is the worst addiction of our times. I imagine there are more people addicted to their phones / social media than to alcohol or drugs -- because it's so accessible -- almost everyone has a phone now. We need a 12-step program for this. The parents of my 6 year old nephew have withheld phones from him, which I think was a wise choice. He loves books.
Read a book before bed? Add a warm cup of cocoa and yer set! But then, I'm old, so I don't need to worry about most of that doom-scroll stuff because by the time it comes to pass, I'll be dead. Or at least that's the plan.
thank you for writing this. i want to leave a little note of encouragement for you and anyone reading this who feels the same way:
it's not just you. these devices and the apps we fill them with are designed to be addictive. but you can stop using them, and you will stop craving them. i switched to a flip phone six months ago and i can tell you from experience it really does get better.
if i may offer a small unsolicited piece of advice: it is so much easier to make one big decision to remove the addictive device from your life than to make a million tiny decisions every day to resist using it. (of course, this can look different for different people. maybe you order a flip phone, maybe you take a day to remove apps and adjust settings on your smartphone.)
wishing you the very best in your quest to touch grass!
This line is beautifully written and so do SOn important to remember: "The platforms I scroll are designed to capture my attention, and the easiest, most efficient way to do that is to terrify me with distorted, hope-flattening visions of a false reality populated by miserable little bigots and bots programmed to mock compassion."
Have you thought about why you like to doom scroll on your phone before bedtime? A lot of people want their brains to be stimulated and it just happens that phones are an easy way to do just that. News are designed to enrage us, not to comfort us.
Before smart phones, I would sleep on radio channels fainting in the background, just hearing people talk, like white noise. Now, I just loop podcasts, of people talking. It's not that I don't like silence or the thoughts that are running in my head, I can stay phoneless and just sitting doing nothing but I'm a person who's always trying to quench that fire that is called boredom, cause if I don't, I would end up doing very stupid things.
I have been trying to quit my phone. Thanks for the reminder that it’s today’s smoking. I needed to hear that.
So true. I appreciate the humor. I wonder if this is the worst addiction of our times. I imagine there are more people addicted to their phones / social media than to alcohol or drugs -- because it's so accessible -- almost everyone has a phone now. We need a 12-step program for this. The parents of my 6 year old nephew have withheld phones from him, which I think was a wise choice. He loves books.
This is so on point. And funny! I laughed out loud twice. Thank you for inserting humor in there.
Read a book before bed? Add a warm cup of cocoa and yer set! But then, I'm old, so I don't need to worry about most of that doom-scroll stuff because by the time it comes to pass, I'll be dead. Or at least that's the plan.
Big fan of blankets, esp where sandwiches are involved. Nice one, Johnny.
I love when an essay slaps me around a little bit.
Thanks for this!
I know what you mean! I spent time time doing a digital detox and lived to tell the tale. It really is the damn phone!
thank you for writing this. i want to leave a little note of encouragement for you and anyone reading this who feels the same way:
it's not just you. these devices and the apps we fill them with are designed to be addictive. but you can stop using them, and you will stop craving them. i switched to a flip phone six months ago and i can tell you from experience it really does get better.
if i may offer a small unsolicited piece of advice: it is so much easier to make one big decision to remove the addictive device from your life than to make a million tiny decisions every day to resist using it. (of course, this can look different for different people. maybe you order a flip phone, maybe you take a day to remove apps and adjust settings on your smartphone.)
wishing you the very best in your quest to touch grass!
This line is beautifully written and so do SOn important to remember: "The platforms I scroll are designed to capture my attention, and the easiest, most efficient way to do that is to terrify me with distorted, hope-flattening visions of a false reality populated by miserable little bigots and bots programmed to mock compassion."
Your point is so well made, John, not to mention humorous.
I can leave the phone on charge in the kitchen, but if I wake up in the middle of the night, the temptation to trot off and fetch it is very strong.
Have you thought about why you like to doom scroll on your phone before bedtime? A lot of people want their brains to be stimulated and it just happens that phones are an easy way to do just that. News are designed to enrage us, not to comfort us.
Before smart phones, I would sleep on radio channels fainting in the background, just hearing people talk, like white noise. Now, I just loop podcasts, of people talking. It's not that I don't like silence or the thoughts that are running in my head, I can stay phoneless and just sitting doing nothing but I'm a person who's always trying to quench that fire that is called boredom, cause if I don't, I would end up doing very stupid things.