Lately, I’ve started to notice my addiction to my devices, and all kinds of digital stimulation. The digital addiction is like a slow and silent poison, and if I’m being honest, has been slowly brewing for years.
A quick search in Reddit would reveal that this is not a unique problem. Thousands of people are actively looking for ways to curb the screen addiction, and speaking publicly about it.
In fact, the symptoms may sound familiar to you: Watching Youtube videos in the toilet, listening to podcasts while I drive, playing videos or music in the background while I work, scrolling social media while I struggle to fall asleep. I even find myself habitually (and unconsciously) looking and scrolling through Twitter/X in idle times, such as when I’m walking or waiting for food to arrive.
And with years of letting these habits built up, I find it increasingly hard to let go of my devices.
No matter how you justify that it is “productive” to listen to podcasts, or watching educational content in various social platforms, the truth is that the retained “value” from these mindless consumption is little to none.
I slowly realize that what I crave is not the “content” on these platforms per se, but the instant gratification of dopamine that I get from content consumption. The overstimulation often makes you feel productive, but it is simply noises of distraction, or information overload, that prevents you from working on what’s truly important to you.
Not anymore. Now I tell myself to be more active in taking back control of my mind. Learn to enjoy the silence, to slow down the pace, and to give myself space to think throughout the day.
Be more purposeful with your content consumption. Use your devices with “intent”, like how you’d use a search engine. If you are trying to learn something specific, or solve a specific problem, then look up the specific content to consume. Ignore the recommendations by the algorithm, they are optimized to be extremely good at taking away your attention. Go in, get what you want, then get tf out.
Never overstay your welcome in the digital realm.
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