Falling Off the Wagon
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Anyone Else Seeking Comfort With Mindless Scrolling?
There have been times in my life that I have managed to exert self-control over the addictions that plague me, like my social media obsession or my eating habits. Somehow, I’ve psyched myself up enough to impose strict limitations on myself—and keep them. For a while.
I was speaking to a friend who lives in Minneapolis about two weeks after the race riots began. “I’ve been so terrible with my phone lately,” she admitted. While she used to be very disciplined about the amount of time she spent scrolling through social media, all of that discipline seemed to have gone out the window when her city exploded. All of a sudden, she was constantly on her phone, checking the news, reading updates from city officials, watching videos of what was happening in the streets outside of her apartment building, scrolling through Twitter. Now, after the city had calmed down somewhat, she still couldn’t seem to detach herself from her phone. It was like the good habits she had spent a lot of energy creating had evaporated and couldn’t be found any longer.
I liken this sort of behavior to my own experience with emotional eating. It would take every ounce of willpower I had to adjust my eating habits and maintain healthy rituals around food. But then, something stressful or sad would happen and my healthy eating habits would fly out the window.
We create a delicate equilibrium to control our bad habits (or addictions), but then, some unprecedented event occurs and throws us off our balance.
For me, and a lot of people, the pandemic was that unprecedented event that threw off our routines and perhaps pushed us into unpleasant territory when it comes to the addictions that we try mightily to keep at bay. Many people who struggle with alcohol and drug addictions have had their sobriety tested during the pandemic.
As a highly social person, I turned to Instagram as a way to connect with people during a time of social isolation. I had always prided myself on my ability to stay somewhat disconnected from Instagram. I had an account but checked it and posted rarely. Facebook was more my drug of choice. But I simply couldn’t handle the charged emotional landscape of Facebook as people freaked out openly about the state of our country with politics and a pandemic creating a scary mélange. I noticed how emotionally wrought I was after scrolling through Facebook and decided I needed something a bit more casual and light-hearted to distract my attention. That’s when I turned towards Instagram.
Being on Instagram gave me the fun and light-heartedness that I was seeking, but pretty soon, I was full on invested. I started violating my rule against checking social media on my phone and pretty soon I was a scrolling maniac, sometimes even crawling out of bed in the middle of the night to scroll away in the living room while my husband slept in our bedroom. As these apps are designed to do, it’s easy to fall in hook, line and sinker, what with the tagging and stories and messages, etc. They’re cheekily designed to make you keep coming back again and again.
One of the most insidious ways that Instagram hooks its users is with ephemeral content—disappearing stories that you’ll miss if you don’t check back on a consistent basis. Sometimes, I’d get a message that someone had tagged me in a story, but when I tried to watch it, I’d find that this story had already disappeared, hence creating an intense feeling of FOMO. What had I missed out on? I would never know, but I’d be left with the feeling that I wouldn’t have missed it if I checked Instagram more frequently!
My addiction isn’t one that has its own support group – but I imagine that smartphone addiction will in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, I’m working to regain the equilibrium that I once had pre-COVID—a time when I barely checked social media, and definitely not on my phone!
Tip of the Week
Make a list of things you can do to ease your stress that don't involve a computer, tablet or smartphone.
Digital Life Around the Web
The political leanings on social media platforms don't necessarily match the political leanings of their founders or creators. The Daily did an episode about the different tactics that Facebook and Twitter are using (or not using) to tackle misinformation on their networks.
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