Intro
With the current state of the world, I find myself more and more often doomscrolling on different social media apps. I find myself not necessarily educating myself further, but digging myself deeper into a spiral. I’m not joking when I say I have fully considered just switching to a flip phone, I have the eBay tabs to prove it. So, in hopes of finally dropping the habit, here are some alternatives instead of grabbing your phone!
Junk Journal
I’ve picked up the habit of keeping a junk journal! For me, a junk journal is like a scrapbook but less effort and more about the everyday things you gather. It can be as simple as putting glue on a receipt and slapping it in there or making more effort to make it more aesthetically pleasing. My favorite part about this is that it costs nothing. We all have a random notebook from a past class or all the times we’ve told ourselves we’ll actually journal. Plus, the whole point of a junk journal is to put junk you gather from everyday life, especially being in college, the amount of free stickers, pins, buttons, etc is to a point excessive. It takes up a good chunk of time and it’s a low stakes college time capsule. I’ve managed to make mine quite cute (check out my insta for sneak peaks ;) ) and it’s been one of my favorite past times.
Low-stakes exercise
I get it, exercise is a basic answer, but I cannot stress enough that it be low-stakes. For example, this past summer my friends and I picked up tennis! Not the aesthetic, quiet luxury type of tennis, I’m talking about the type of tennis where we used rackets my dad bought 10 years ago at a thrift store that turned our hands blue from the tape. It was more the antithesis of quiet luxury, it was loud thriftiness or something like that. It wasn’t just financially affordable, it also had a low-stakes learning curve. None of us knew how to play, so there was no consequence of sucking! These games would last for hours and we were too busy laughing and running to find the tennis balls in the shrubbery to realize it. 10/10 would recommend!
Mini journaling
Another low stakes past time is keeping a mini journal. With the amount of free journals from the career fairs, you’re bound to have one shoved in a drawer somewhere. Keeping a small journal in your backpack, purse, or even your pocket if you want to give Jacob Elordi, is a great way to keep your hands busy. This time when I say journaling, it could be for anything. There should be no pressure to actually write in this journal, unless you want to. Fill it with doodles, funny things you thought of, lists, or whatever stroke of genius hits you when you’re roaming around. I found that whenever I had set up specific expectations for journaling, I realized I would turn to it less. So, I took the rules away and it made a great pass time.
Deep Cleaning
If we have time to doomscroll for what feels like forever, it means we have the time to lock in with cleaning. I’m not talking about general upkeep, I’m talking about the stuff we don’t even think about. When was the last time you wiped down your shower head? How about dusting behind the TV? Also, a great opportunity to organize that closet and donate to a local thrift store, or contact a local homeless shelter to see if they take donations. I’m a true believer of a clean space helps clear your mind, so let’s go ahead and clean away.
Conclusion
There are plenty more alternatives to doomscrolling, and hopefully you found these as a good way to use up your time or at least made you think of some things to do yourself. I found myself a lot happier and content when I started using my time toward enrichment instead of continuously watching videos of horrific events I already understood the gravity of or watching mundane. Be free from the prison bars of the internet!
