I have told myself I will just read one message and find myself scrolling for thirty minutes
I opened up Instagram to look at a post, and before I knew it, I’d been watching a few reels, opened WhatsApp, and found myself on YouTube, without knowing how I had gotten there
Sometimes I find myself not even enjoying what I’m watching and continue to scroll
I know I shouldn’t; I’m tired and should go to bed, but somehow my brain will convince me that putting my phone down is a lot harder than it really is
Have we truly lost some of our willpower, or has technology subtly convinced us that it is the most appropriate way to spend our free time?
It’s a mix of both, actually.
It’s Not Just the Notifications
We blame our phones for the notifications that pop up, lighting up the screen and convincing us to look.
But that’s only part of it.
Sometimes, there are no notifications, but I find my phone in my hands anyway, on autopilot, as if my hands convinced me to pick it up before my brain could tell me to put it down.
According to research published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, analyzing the use of smartphones found that the majority of interactions with phones were not prompted by notifications but by the user’s own decision to pick up their phone and interact with it.
There are times when I am waiting for a friend at a café, in a queue, sitting on my bed with not much to do, and before I realize it, I’m on my phone.
We have gotten so used to filling up empty time that sitting still for a few minutes is now foreign to us.
Why Is There Always Something New to Watch?
Part of the reason we continue to watch is that there is always something new to watch.
I’ll be watching one video, and there’s always another one right there, and suddenly, I’m getting a notification of a tip, a celebrity, something unrelated to the app where I first started watching.
I never truly know what’s next.
That’s why endless feeds keep me watching, because there’s never a page, an end, a last episode, a final video, something to tell me, okay, that’s it, I’m done
That’s why it’s so easy to scroll on endlessly when we watch videos.
When We’re Watching a Few Videos, It’s Not a Problem
Some of us scroll differently, and watching a few videos is not a problem for us.
Unless it’s something we meant to do later, like go to sleep
When Ten Minutes Becomes an Hour
If I finish work or my class, and I decide to take a little break for ten minutes, it’s not a big deal if I watch a few videos.
But those ten minutes turn into thirty, and then an hour, and now I have less time for my dinner, my assignment, or just to relax before bed.
Honestly, my phone itself isn’t the issue; it’s the difference between what I wanted to do and what I ended up doing.
A little bit of scrolling is a good way to unwind, but when it becomes my go-to distraction, that leaves me with less time for things than I wanted to do.
The next day, I do it all over again, without realizing it.
Is Your Phone Ruining Your Sleep?
Sometimes, I’ll tell myself ” a few videos before bed ” and find myself watching longer than I should.
It’s because my phone gives me entertainment on demand; with every notification that pops up, there is always one more message, one more video, one more update that might be worth my time
But late-night scrolling doesn’t help my brain wind down either, since a bright screen and moving images are rarely conducive to winding down before bed.
It’s not necessarily that every minute I spend on my phone at night is hurting my sleep; it’s more that the phone may be pushing my bedtime later than I want it to be, and if I’m sleeping poorly because of this, it may be worth reconsidering those last thirty minutes before bed.
Sometimes, the solution is almost as simple as charging your phone in another room, or next to your pillow.
Taking Control Without Giving Up Your Phone
Let’s be real, telling people to stop using their phones is a losing battle.
The phone is a part of our daily lives, whether for work, payments, directions, talking to people, and almost everything else in between.
The point is not to give up technology; it’s to use the phone when we need to, rather than when we automatically do
A few things you can try are:
- Becoming aware of your phone use in the first place.
Before you unlock your phone, ask yourself why you picked it up in the first place.
Was it to check something, or were you bored?
Just a second of awareness will give you that split-second of control over the situation.
- Limiting the amount of scrolling you do.
If you want to watch fifteen minutes of videos, set a timer
Once the timer goes off, decide if you really need more, or if you’ve gotten enough.
- Putting your phone out of reach in the first place.
Try putting your phone away during mealtimes, study sessions, and conversations unless you’re actively using it for something.
- Create a bedtime routine that puts your phone away for the last thirty minutes of the day.
Read, listen to music, and enjoy the moment without the screen for a while.
- Finally, don’t stress over it.
Your phone will always convince you that it needs your time and attention.
The point is being aware of when we let it take time away from us, and slowly building better habits that put us in control, rather than the other way around
Small steps that work for us are almost always more effective than strict rules we can’t follow for more than a day or two.
The Bottom Line
Phones have made our lives easier in more ways than we can count, with the ability to communicate with people, learn almost anything in minutes, and have entertainment at our fingertips anytime we have a spare moment.
But along the way, we picked up a bad habit of grabbing our phone without thinking about it.
But the point isn’t to blame technology or beat ourselves up about using it, but rather to recognize that it can take time away from us before we realize it
When we pick up our phone to glance at something quickly, pay attention to what comes next.
Maybe it’s a few videos before we put the phone back down and continue with what we were doing.
Maybe it’s us scrolling because there wasn’t much else to do.
Whatever the reason, it’s good to recognize that the choice was ours to make.
Because technology wasn’t supposed to make our lives easier, only better.
