Digital Distractions
This is what happens when you stop spending time with intent and let distractions rule your life. You become consumed by the constant search for more, the desire to pull down and refresh the feed, and the incessant lure of that small glowing rectangular screen on your hand. It's all so suffocating.
Your mind feels like it's getting clogged, your thoughts slow down, and your brain feels incredibly hazy. Sometimes, you surprise yourself with how much you've forgotten. What did you do this morning again? Perhaps you should seriously consider getting therapy? Or, at the very least, throw that damn thing away!
It's as if someone is out to get you. Every little thing seems over-engineered for addiction. You struggle to concentrate to the point where you can't even read your search results, wishing for the screen to show a short 30-second summary video with fast camera cuts and condensed speech with no pauses. What in the world happened to you?
Four days, that's all it took. It was supposed to be a simple two-day break, and this is how you end up? All crippled and broken? Is it the fault of the technology? Or is it your fault for not having self-control?
The good news is that recovery was just as fast. All you had to do was stop. Perhaps it's because your brain was only temporarily rewired that it was easy to undo. Maybe the act of going offline and journaling like crazy also helped.
Deep down, you already know this. You know full well what you're getting yourself into. You also know how to get yourself out of it. It's just a matter of having enough self-awareness to act on it.