Time is fleeting, don't waste it

I woke up early this morning and got out of bed. It was a very quiet morning, and I walked over to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Although the quiet can be comforting for some, in our age, it seems that you have to swim against the current to be able to be present with yourself. With that being said, instead of enjoying my breakfast and a slow morning, I grabbed my phone and started scrolling on Instagram.

What I started to realize was that I was not interested whatsoever in any of the things I was seeing, I couldn't care less, and if you were to ask me what the last post was about, I'm not sure I could've even given you an answer. What I was really after was the dopamine fix.

Luckily, I came across a post about a study that discusses how short-form content can lower mental cognition, worsen mental health, and even limit your self-control. So that made me ask myself - why do I spend so much time scrolling through Instagram reels, or YouTube Shorts, if it's clear that it doesn't really do any good as to how I feel, and there are long-term negatives to it?

The only clear answer to me was that I was trying to grasp at anything to avoid being unstimulated or bored.

The problem — at least for me — is that nothing meaningful has ever come from watching reels or shorts. No good ideas. No clarity. The only tangible outcome is occasionally buying something they’re great at convincing me I need.

Maybe the truth is that when we scroll mindlessly, we’re trying to escape something uncomfortable. And maybe that discomfort is worth paying attention to. It might be pointing to a misalignment between how we live and how we want to live.

If we stop running from that feeling and sit with it, maybe it'll help us gravitate towards the way we want to spend our days.