"I spend about 4 hours a day on my phone, checking emails, responding to texts, scrolling through social media, and checking the weather. That's four hours I could be spending reading a book, writing an article, learning how to predict the weather, calling a loved one, and doing anything besides checking the time suck and brain rot that is social media sites and messaging apps."
"Every winter, as average daylight dwindles and my energy levels deplete, this feeling of learned helplessness at the hands of technology comes to a head. I have no energy to get up from my bed. It takes me a while to build the courage to transit to the gym. What do I do instead? I sit on my bed, and I scroll."
"I scroll through financial advice posts telling me that I should be investing way more in the market than I already am, I scroll through engagements and weddings my former classmates are celebrating, I scroll through reactionary content strangers post on the internet for clicks, and I scroll through some of the most sinister news my eyes can see, and my brain can fathom."
Digitization of work and social life has normalized screen addiction and many people spend three to eight hours daily on phones. The narrator spends about four hours daily checking email, texts, social media, and the weather, displacing activities like reading, writing, learning, and calling loved ones. Reduced daylight and low energy in winter create learned helplessness, prompting prolonged bed-bound scrolling. Scrolling cycles through financial advice, peers' celebrations, reactionary clickbait, and disturbing news, producing an overwhelming jumble. The narrator deletes social apps, puts the phone in another room, enforces stricter schedules, and leaves the house, only to redownload apps later and repeat the cycle.
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