100 days (and counting) of no scrolling, no short form video.
Smarter Sundays - #243.
It has been just over 100 days since I stopped drinking caffeine. It has also been just over 100 days since I stopped scrolling or watching short form video.
The Why:
One of the things that makes us unique is our ability to remember, recall, and reproduce moments a.k.a our memories.
Growing up, recollecting different phone numbers off the top of one’s head was a fun game to play with friends. With improved technology the need for remembering and recollecting information - even important ones like someone’s birthday or anniversary - has taken a back seat and has been shipped off to the chips and bots in one’s devices.
Most of this is good, and necessary. However, memory, like any muscle, atrophies when not put in to regular use.
And since the pandemic and the advent of short form videos across all platforms, our attention spans and our memories have been under attack by the barrage of content that is at our fingertips.
In short form videos - and in infinite scrolling - we have found an outlet for all of our issues: Anger, sadness, loneliness, happiness, boredom, you name it.
Through 2024 I found myself picking up my smartphones and scrolling mindlessly, double tapping without registering, and flicking up my right thumb until my eyes were tired or my battery near dead. Even the “app timers” were of no use, for with two clicks you could reset the timers and go back to scrolling without much of a hiccup.1
If I go with the conservative estimate that I scrolled for 30 minutes a day, that is nearly 11,000 hours in the entire year that I spent looking at a screen versus interacting with someone in real life.
I cannot recollect even 5 reels from the past year that were so good that I would want to revisit them again.
I would delude myself into thinking that I was being productive while watching these reels for I would save them into folders for the future: Travel, Training, Nutrition, Relationships, Business etc. Not once have I revisited or reopened any of these saved reels.
Worse, they tend to take out the elements of joy and surprise when one encounters new experiences due to sheer overexposure. I’ve seen review after review from people who’ve ventured into a new destination, or a new cafe/restaurant complaining of ‘how the ambiance/aesthetics don’t match what they saw on Insta’.
Watching short form content is the equivalent of consuming empty calories. It gives you the illusion of filling you up, but soon enough the hunger returns, and with a vengeance.
What was worse was that I was spending precious time away from people in my vicinity in this mindless quest for ‘entertainment’. Unlike most other forms of entertainment we have had previously - live sports, shows, cinema, television etc - short form content has two things going for it that makes it worse:
It is Isolationary. No one is collective-viewing any reels together.
It is endless. Every other form of entertainment comes with you knowing when it would end. Not so with this. Before you know it, it is 1am and you’re still looking at bright screens in your bed.
There is a quote that is attributed to the CEO of Netflix: “Our competition is Sleep.” Short form content has taken this to another level altogether; their competition is everything else in your life.
Short form content only works for the platform that hosts and promotes it, and the handful of creators that are able to capitalise on the trends.
The How:
Knowing short form content and infinite scrolling is a minefield is easy. Knowing how to work around it is tough.
Here’s what I did that helped me stop scrolling:
I stopped hitting the Reels and/or Shorts tabs on the apps:
(TikTok is banned in India, thankfully.) If you find this difficult, start using your phone with your left hand, and you might find it a little easier to not hit the Reels tab.I stopped opening reels people sent me via DMs:
Yet another sneaky way to keep you scrolling; open a reel sent to you via a DM and you suddenly find yourself watching more than the singular reel sent to you. I don’t open DMs that have sent me a reel, or even if I do, I just double tap the message without opening the reel. Yes, some people are left disappointed because I do not respond or open, but I am happy to disappoint others in order to not disappoint myself.I stopped sending reels to people via DMs:
I send people reels —> they find it funny/emotional and react —> I feel the need to do more of the same to get more validation. A loop I was stuck on for the major part of last year. I stopped playing the validation game.I made it a rule to only watch/like reels of the people I follow:
Of all the rules I set out for myself, this has been the one that has worked the best. I follow only a few people (relatively) and making it a rule that I will only watch their reels/content set strong guardrails on the odd chance that I am tempted to scroll.I Set a hard timer for IG. Deleted it from my other phone.
I set a hard timer of 15 minutes for Instagram and have stuck to it for the most of this year, barring a day or two when I was doing a Q&A with my audience there.
I also deleted it from my work phone early this year and the temptation to watch after the timer on the other phone goes off is now long gone.
The (potential) Pitfalls:
Initially I was happy that I had stopped scrolling short form videos on Instagram/Youtube but soon I realised I swapped one form of scrolling for another. I was now scrolling reddit mindlessly.
Thankfully I course corrected quickly once I discovered this swap.
If you’re attempting this yourself, be aware that you could end up replacing one form of mindless scrolling with another form that may seem benign but is likely to be equally bad.
The Surprises:
Contrary to one’s expectations I am still watching a lot of media! The big difference is that it is now more thoughtful, generally long form and it is because I am specifically searching for that piece of content or it is something that is of high interest to me; be it written word, a long form video, or a podcast. I am now not consuming for the sake of consuming.
I can already recall a handful of videos and content I’ve consumed this year that have been impactful and I’ve enjoyed thoroughly, something that would have been hard for me to do last year.
The Future:
“Not wanting something is as good as having it” - Naval Ravikant.
People’s attention spans are dropping rapidly. So are mine, except I have no time for short form content, only deep, detailed forms of content - videos, audios, and writing.
I am also moving away from reading, listening, and watching the latest pieces of content and actively trying to consume content that is at least a few years old (unless they’re related to training/nutrition and the latest RCTs).
I’ve been able to do this successfully with books since 2024, but finding it harder to do so with podcasts, and video content. It is a slow change but one I am hoping to get better at through the year.
PS: The apps that I use to help minimise distraction on my laptop:
Freedom.to, I would also highly recommend installing their browser extension too.
Blocksite.co. Extremely useful when you want to sit down and do focused work.
What I enjoyed reading this past week: I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life. For those who are pursuring FIRE, this could be an interesting read.
What I enjoyed listening to this past week: Terry Real - Breaking the Rules of Traditional Couples Therapy
What I enjoyed watching this past week: Naval Ravikant on Modern Wisdom. (Youtube)
Apple’s implementation of this is worse than Google’s. When you’re timed out of an app on the Pixel, you’re thrown out of the app and your last position. On iPhone, you can reset the timings and find yourself back where you were just a few seconds ago, thus making it easier to just continue where you left off. Bad implementation.