“> I have 8+ hours a day screentime on my iPhone.
For a long time I thought that my constant internet use was a symptom of my disinterest in other things, but more recently I’ve come to realize that it is, in fact, the sole cause of said disinterest. The quick dopamine hits you get on the internet have subconsciously convinced your brain that the internet is what matters, and that everything else (i.e. your life) is simply a distraction.
Don’t take my word for it. You can test this hypothesis in ~2 hours. Hide and/or turn off all of your electronics, and wait. You’ll sit on the couch, you’ll eat a snack, you’ll find that your phone has magically appeared in your hand (how?!?), but just put it back down. As you try to go 2 hours without any passive entertainment, and I can almost guarantee that you’ll discover that your mind will begin to show interest in things like hobbies/reading. If you can’t get online, a book sounds pretty nice.
There’s the rub–if getting online is an option, it’s always the best option. The only way to do other stuff is to carve out time where getting online (or, for me, passive entertainment of any kind) is not an option.
Fun fact: If you can forego passive entertainment for the week, you will see all of that junk for what it really is, to your horror and eternal benefit.”
It’s funny how much we try to convince ourselves that we are not totally addicted to the quick rush of excitement from the internet. And that we can’t even see that the only solution is to simply put it away. Which is really hard to do with a phone, because we lie to ourselves that we need it in our hands or close by, “just in case”.
I’m still off Twitter. I’m scared as hell to go look at it and feel the horror this comment is talking about. I do feel the benefit though.