if there’s one thing the internet excels at, it’s without doubt the ability to provide endless ways and opportunities for us to waste time, and for that, it’s unrivalled… so how can we be bored?
for around five billion of us, it’s scrolling through socials, but otherwise there’s a seemingly unlimited amount of time-sapping apps and websites ready to digitally-hypnotise us and magically cure any boredom. day or night, we’re just a digi-second away from turning our attention to aimless app-hopping and doom scrolling what’s going on. those endless feeds of content are a perpetual source of inspiration, information and amusement, yet they can distort our views and disconnect us from other human beings
smartphones are now phones in name only. in this app-age, calling someone just for a chat has not only become passé, but can at times feel ominous – what catastrophe awaits on the other end? who died? what awful global calamity is unfolding? our phones have morphed into an essential multi-tool, managing nearly every aspect of our lives. we use apps for everything – to read, watch, listen, play and communicate, to buy stuff, to exercise, order food, book tickets, manage our finances, and pretty much everything else
we’ve come a long way since the first app in the mid-nineties – the built-in, Nokia version of the arcade game, Snake. nowadays, the average smartphone user has around 50 apps installed, resulting in people checking their phones on average, over 150 times per day. the dopamine-laden news and updates, combined with a constant, mild FOMO makes it impossible to resist checking for updates for too long
it’s a vicious circle. the more useful our phones become, the more we use them. the more we use them, the more our brains tell us to use our phones for whatever is needed, and so the more we feel an urge to check our phones even when we don’t have to. so we waste hours scrolling through socials, watching videos, browsing websites, playing games and keeping our minds occupied with random stuff that rarely contributes to our existence in any meaningful or significant way
I do acknowledge the irony of highlighting our app additions, whilst promoting (and hoping you use) rewind, but it’s about steering our digital habits toward something more fruitful, encouraging more beneficial choices and providing a rewarding alternative to what we do while we are ‘plugged in’. if we are going to spend hours and hours on our phones, tablets and laptops (and let’s face it, we probably will), isn’t it better to allocate some of that time on building something of immense and ever-increasing personal value, rather than scrolling, clicking and tapping our way through limitless pages of negatively biased news, polarised politics, celebrity bullshit, random people’s opinions and ‘hilarious’, pet related content?
many of our actions stem from unconscious habits rather than conscious choice, and our favorite apps become just that – habits. they’re the ones that make you pick up your phone. the ones your finger instinctively taps before your brain tells you to. the ones that embed themselves into your life and make you give a shit about them. the ones you now couldn’t live without. good habits can be as addictive as bad ones, but they offer rewards far beyond momentary entertainment. positive life habits provide positive life results – it’s that simple
although you don’t need to, connecting with a close friend or family member in rewind to swap and share old memories and stories with, is a great way to fill your timeline faster than you would do alone. but as with anything in life, a little motivation is all that’s needed to kickstart your rewind experience, then hopefully a brand new, positive life habit will keep you adding to it for the years to come
for a deeper, more scientific dive into habits, watch https://youtu.be/Fq_zKRqyCNU