I finally curbed my phone addiction with this unexpected device

"I average around four hours of my day on my phone, checking emails, responding to texts, scrolling social media, and checking the weather. That's four hours I could be spending reading a book, writing an article, learning how to predict the weather, calling a loved one, and doing anything besides checking the time suck and brain rot that is social media sites and messaging apps."

"Every October, as average daylight dwindles and my energy levels deplete, this feeling of learned helplessness at the hands of technology comes to a head. I have no energy to get up from my bed. It takes me a while to build the courage to transit to the gym. What do I do instead? I sit on my bed and I scroll."

"I scroll through financial advice posts telling me that I should be investing way more in the market than I already am, I scroll through engagements and weddings my former classmates are celebrating, I scroll through reactionary content strangers post on the internet for clicks, and I scroll through some of the most sinister news my eyes can see and my brain can fathom."

Every aspect of working and social life has become digitized and screen addiction is now a common characteristic of daily life. Phone use often spans three to eight hours; personal average is about four hours spent checking email, texts, social media, and weather. Those hours replace reading, writing, learning, and calling loved ones. Seasonal declines in daylight and energy trigger learned helplessness and extended scrolling in bed. The feed mixes financial advice, friends' milestones, reactionary content, and alarming news into a jumbled stream. Coping strategies include deleting apps, placing the phone in another room, enforcing schedules, leaving the house, and later reinstalling apps, producing a recurring cycle.

Read at ZDNET