Has watching a movie become a productive activity for anyone else? When I sit down and watch a movie without scrolling on Instagram or Twitter, I feel proud of myself — which is, honestly, kind of sad.
It’s safe to say that we’re deep into the era of social media, and we have been for a while now. Right when we were just getting the hang of this online form of communication, TikTok just had to throw us a curveball and get everyone addicted to doomscrolling.
What is Doomscrolling?
For those who don’t know, doomscrolling is when you continuously scroll posts on social media without any actual goal, entertainment value, or end in sight. It’s essentially a way to fill, or even waste, time. This “activity” has become the norm for teenagers and young adults. I can unfortunately relate to this condition, and it has genuinely ruined my work ethic.
Ever since the spring semester began, I’ve been painfully aware of my doomscrolling habits. Instead of doing work or hanging out with friends, I’ll clock into the cage of social media. Now, rather than being a brick in this wall of conformity, I’ve tried to consciously avoid the magnetic grasp of doomscrolling.
Rethinking Productivity
Productivity is a spectrum. Some people feel productive when they complete one assignment, while others only feel productive if they complete all their assignments, go to the gym, clean their room, and find the cure for cancer. With those varying degrees and the hold that doomscrolling has over our generation, it might be best to start with the small things.
How to decrease the doomscrolling
When you’re first trying to get away from social media, the best thing is to hide the source. When I sit down to do some work, I’ll put my phone in the drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. That removes the ability for you to just reach over, pick it up, and open the nearest social media app. If you can last the first 10 minutes without your phone, then you can last until you’re done working.
If there’s no work to be done, which is a lovely case, what will you do? Not doomscroll, I hope, but rather participate in some other activity. Reading a book is a great way to break the fruitless habit of scrolling. It’s a great activity to wind down from a stressful day of classes or work while also getting some useful or at least interesting content.
For those who aren’t the reading type, taking a walk is another great way to find some peace. Enjoying the nature around you is much better than taking in whatever reels are being posted on Instagram. I’ll even double down on this because not only are you getting outside, but walking is an excellent form of physical activity. You can do it alone, with friends, with music, or in silence. A great, versatile activity that keeps you away from the people who live in your phone.
Still, in group settings, doomscrolling is a threat. A subset of doomscrolling is group doomscrolling, when you and your friends are hanging out in the same room, but everyone is looking at social media. This is peak unproductivity.
If this situation occurs, my friends and I institute a fix: a phone stack. Anyone can enact a phone stack at any time, and if they do, we’ll stack all our phones in the center of the room or table. With no one having their devices and being held accountable for their actions, we can actually have a productive conversation about each other’s days, news, or literally anything.
As I said, productivity is a spectrum. This is definitely not the end-all, be-all for being productive in a world that praises doomscrolling, but these are just a few potential steps to get out of the hole of internet content. Social media is good in moderation, but sprinkling in some unrelated-to-social-media activity is necessary, too. We probably will never escape the power of the doomscroll, but we can try to feel productive in the face of it.
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