Scrolling Our Lives Away

I have been thinking a lot about time. There are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all I want to complete. Being incredibly busy has become a societal norm for a number of years now. Time is precious and I don’t know about you, but I am constantly chasing time.

In the quest to find more time, I have been assessing my habits and actions throughout the day. As I type this blog from my phone, I am grateful for the technology which allows me to be creative on the fly. Yet, much of the time I toss away stems from an object which fits perfectly in my hand.

My work days are full and demanding. I sit in front of a dual monitor five days a week with multiple screens running at all times and what do I do when I have a break, I check my Twitter feed, Facebook, Instagram or I play a game of Candy Crush, or scroll through Amazon perusing items I don’t need.

After supper, I am usually tired from a long day at work and I want to unwind, I then move to watching a larger screen aka the television, yet, I always have my cell phone by my side, and I scroll through Pinterest looking for recipes or fitness routines I rarely try. I scroll while I watch tv and my husband has his phone attached to his hand playing his soccer game or scrolling through gardening centers and hardware stores.

It is ridiculous! We cannot even be fully present to watch a tv show. I have my phone at the supper table and have received texts or an alert pops up on my phone and once again, I am distracted and not present for our evening meal.

It has become a nightly ritual for me to scroll through TicToc videos before bedtime and watching silly kitty videos which do make me giggle. Sometimes an hour has passed by with this mindless scrolling and then I cannot turn my brain off yet I should be sleeping.

I am wasting up to two to three hours a day scrolling. Yet, I have the audacity to claim there are not enough hours in the day??? I do feel addicted to social media, and in some ways I would like to remove myself from it all, however I belong to groups and have relatives and friends from all over the world and it does allow us to stay connected. Am I making excuses? What are your thoughts?

Here is my plan of action to reduce my scrolling: unplugging at 8pm which includes TV watching precluding weekends. Any activity I engage in I will leave my phone elsewhere, to avoid distractions.

I want to spend more time on writing and music, and if I can free up two hours a day, this could make a huge difference in allowing me to be creative and return to the stuff which brings me joy.

There are enough hours in the day! This whole song and dance about being busy. I wonder if we are all distracted and that is it. I have bought into the social media time robber machine for too long and I am over it.

“I want to live life, not scroll through it”

Me

Please note, I am not criticizing anyone for time devoted to scrolling, or being attached to your phone. However, I do challenge you to ask yourself, what you are gaining from being so engaged with your phone? How much time are you spending on your phone; is it helping you attain your goals and is it improving your life?

In moderation, scrolling is fine, social media is great, but with all the pop up advertisements, notifications and multiple social media platforms and I belong to all of them. I want to give this reduced disconnection a proper go and see if I can regain some quality time.

Peace & Love – Rachel