I suppose that it’s time for me to confess something to you, dear reader. My posting day for these entries is on Sunday. You probably know that already; after all, when you are reading this, it is Sunday. But I write this throughout my week, edit it on Saturday and make sure it's cleaned up by Sunday. I only make mention of this because what I’m about to tell you may make no sense without context, which I’ll now provide. Here goes.
I failed.
Yep, that’s it. There’s the big revelation. You remember when I said last post that at some point, I planned on failing? I wrote that post on the Thursday before I edited it and subsequently posted it on Sunday. And, then it happened. Saturday and Sunday, my two days off from my regularly scheduled 9 to 5, I found myself helplessly scrolling through my Reddit feed on my phone. I spent an hour or two in this endeavor both days. This… turned consistent throughout the week.
But really, in practice, modern life makes it so we’re almost meant to fail this endeavor from it’s start. When I was going through my phone so that I could effectively dumb it down, I realized that there were so many apps that I have that I need in order to function in day-to-day life. My thermostat for my heat and air conditioning? Controlled from my phone. Sure, I could just go down the cellar steps and change it from there, but the installers put it in a rather inconvenient place that requires me to go over two pipes and duck under some low-hanging wire. My work email? Accessed through an authenticator app on my phone. My time clock app for work? On my phone. Those are just very small examples of the larger problem that I can’t quite escape.
The real question comes down to what I can do to mitigate the problem. Realistically, I can’t get rid of my smartphone, too much of ‘modern’ life depends on it. So, for me, the real solution comes into the little-used button on the side of my phone. I have found, though I have not always been successful this week in doing so, that by simply turning my phone off, it triggers a switch in my mind that it is not available. If it’s not easy to just pick it up, turn on the screen and doomscroll my way to a panic attack, for my mind it takes it out of the equation. My friends that will only communicate through texts and Discord can wait until I choose to be available again.
In addition, by keeping my phone off at night I’ve felt better rested come morning. This isn’t by some miracle or an accident. According to an article from the Cleveland Clinic, that nightly doomscroll keeps your mind engaged, makes you feel alert because of the blue light, and can put you at a higher risk of coming across content that can really set your emotions on high alert. For me, my worst habit has been checking the poll numbers for the election relentlessly at night. I minored in political science, what can I say? But, by turning my phone off and refusing to doomscroll once I hit the sack, I’ve fallen asleep a lot faster and I can wake up at the time I want to, roughly about 5 a.m. Goodbye, existential dread, hello working out to Richard Simmons every day!
Here’s the final problem you may come across. You’ve turned your phone off, you’ve set it aside, you suddenly have a lot of time that’s no longer occupied by the relentless doom scrolling- what do you do with that free time? For me, dear reader, I connect with my roommate. I play video games either on the Wii or the NES emulator I have. I read. I catch up on my favorite shows. Your nights without your phone might look different to mine, and that’s okay. But find what works for you, and then run with it.
Until next time, dear reader.
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