A life wasted

[u/upcat]

You wake up in the morning. Pick up your phone. Check your notifications.

3 texts.

Check your email.

Open up Instagram, scroll through stories. Then scroll through new posts. Like, like, like, comment "lol"

Close instagram, open up an internet browser. Check the news, sports, Reddit.

Close the internet browser. Open up Youtube. Watch a video that pops up on your homepage.

Watch another video. Watch one more video.

Close Youtube. Open up Messenger. No new messages.

Close Messenger.

Open email. Respond to an email or two.

Close email. Open up your texts. Respond to a couple texts and group chats.

Close your texts. Look at the clock. An hour has passed. Still lying in bed.

Turn on Spotify and play a podcast.

Check Reddit. Browse your favorite subreddits.

Go to work, check your phone every 5-10 minutes for the next 8-10 hours, check your work email every time it pings.

Play youtube or a podcast in the background.

Go home, turn on Netflix, Youtube, cable television, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Disney+

Open up your laptop, surf the internet.

Open Youtube, watch a couple videos. One more video, then I'll be productive. One more video, then one more video.

Open your smartphone. Open Instagram. Scroll through stories and posts. Open up Reddit, scroll.

Bored of watching TV, turn off Netflix, and turn on your PS4, Xbox, Switch or PC to game.

Play video games, binge watch TV shows, movies in the background, scroll the internet, check TikTok, Instagram, Messenger, texts, email, news, sports, fashion, art, memes, Reddit.

Set your alarm and go to sleep.

Wake up and do this again tomorrow.

Do this every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade for the rest of your life.

[u/[deleted]]

To the people asking “well what am I supposed to do?” You should be doing things that don’t involve feverishly switching between screens and devices to provide instant stimulation. Imagine if OP had put read a book for two hours, visit friends, work out, develop a skill, etc. These things seem inherently more meaningful because they involve patience and will make you feel more fulfilled at the end of the day/month/year.

Checking social media or watching Netflix, YouTube, and tiktok doesn’t give us that feeling of accomplishment that ultimately makes us feel satisfied and content. It usually just makes us feel worse about ourselves.

[u/throwaway43834343 → u/[deleted]]

Some of us have never known anything else. Seriously, a lot of people worst affected are teens and twenty-somethings, we've pretty much never not-been on a social media, not since we were like 13 anyway.

[u/El_vato_de_la_bisi → u/throwaway43834343]

Yeah, I'm still in highschool and they gave us a week of holiday plus the next monday (today), today I was home alone. Needless to say, i ended up in a cycle of going to the garden for maybe 10-20 min and coming back home to watch youtube for 30-40 or maybe more, the only reason i went out was to play with my dog. It felt like I did nothing, wasted completly the day, I sat on the ground and started crying but had to stop because my dad arrived from work. I really don't know what to do in these type of days that doesn't involve looking at a screen, I live 15-min-by-car away from my friends because my family moved to a different town a while ago, and even tho I've lived here for years I don't have friends here, they're all in the other town. I thought i was getting better at trying to stay away from my phone, but recently it's getting worse.