Say it with me “I hate my big dumb smartphone”. I recently watched a video by Eddy Burback on getting rid of his smartphone for a whole month and have honestly been inspired by the liberation that he portrayed in his video. It reminded me of a time where I too gave up my smartphone during my university years for a couple of months but eventually caved and came crawling back after realizing that I had replaced the time I would spend doom-scrolling on my phone, doom-scrolling on my computer.
These days, it is more difficult for me to give up my phone, with things like my 2FA tokens living on the device, and while I could get a standalone GPS for my car, it is just that extra bit more inconvenient. But I find at the same time I want to give it up more than ever. I hate the hollow feeling that I get when doom-scrolling for hours. Unfortunately this isn’t a smartphone problem, and I don’t think it’s one that I will solve getting rid of it. I find it is just too easy to doom-scroll on my computer.
I found from Eddy’s video that I was envious of two main outcomes of being ‘smartphone free’; I want to be bored, I want to talk to people on the phone instead of just texting (intentionality). Luckily for me, these don’t necessitate having a smartphone! As it turns out, you can just not use it. Unluckily for me, that’s actually really hard.
My dilemma, most people these days probably share in this, is that regardless of what I do, distraction is just millimeters away. If I want to record music, I have to use my computer, which probably has a YouTube tab open from the previous day, studying Japanese, you bet there’s an app for that and right next to it, that little red icon. And while these examples could be done without technology, I don’t really want to. It makes them convenient.
I don’t think it is without hope, though, I think the biggest reason that it becomes difficult to move forward with addressing social media addiction is that you, I, try and do it alone. It becomes a personal struggle and one that is not shared with others. I think this togetherness is one of the crucial factors to moving away from doom-scrolling and the like as, at least I find, that the more “connected” we are online the further you can feel apart.
This comes to my solution. Be intentional with consumption. For at least the next month, I intend to remove unintentional media consumption from my life. As different people have different goals when it comes to their media consumption it probably doesn’t make sense for me to outline a blanket rule for anyone who is wanting to participate but these are mine:
- Have a buddy
- No social media consumption (facebook, insta, youtube. IM is still allowed)
- Games and other boredom avoidant activities are allowed, but only in the context of engaging with others
- Don’t turn your computer on, unless you have something specific you want to do
- Call instead of text, when I can
This isn’t really a lot of rules, and maybe, should you choose to accept, yours are less strict than mine, but I know that I can’t trust myself to do any of these things without being strict or relying on someone else to be accountable to.
And so, here we are. Some of us, not me, have already figured this out, and don’t need to make any change to their social media diet, must be nice. Me on the other hand, I need to change. That burning desire to go out and do something can’t just be left to wither away amongst a pool of apathy. So I’m going to make that change if it kills me, probably won’t though, and I hope, if you feel the same, you do to. Or at least keep on trying.
Peace.