Stop Scrolling to Oblivion
Put an End to This While You Can
Welcome to the paid edition of YouTopian Journey, a Substack featured publication. Each week I will be sharing unique wisdom that can help you in the daily battles that we must all fight in the game of life. This week we discuss why you must stop scrolling to oblivion!
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SCROLLING WON’T SAVE YOU
“Insofar as death is always at one’s door, one should make sufficient effort and act quickly.”-Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Life is finite. No matter how often I write that or scream it from the rooftops, few take me seriously. The multitude are always acting as if they have infinite hours and infinite days.
And why not?
Society has made us think that this is the norm.
That dream project you want to begin? Next year.
That skill you want to learn? Next month.
That chance you want to take? Next time.
We just don’t have the time for our goals and our dreams. They are too time intensive, requiring more than we are willing and able to provide.
But we have the time to scroll through social media. No matter how busy we may be, we won’t ever lose the time to scroll. It has become second nature to us.
Everywhere you go, people are doing it. On public transport, at work, in bed, on the couch, in the park, nowhere is off limits or taboo. We need that content, whatever it may be. That sweet, sweet, content is what we hunger for.
And just how much time do we spend scrolling for this essential content?
Two hours and twenty-seven minutes a day.
That is the average time spent on social media according to the latest 2022 data.
Two hours and twenty-seven minutes a day scrolling, liking, commenting, sharing, and rotting away.
This adds up.
Hours turn to days and days to weeks.
Before you know it, much of your life has been wasted.
Few ever realize this until it is too late.
Don’t be one of them.
Understand, you have the time.
You just don’t have the desire.
It is that simple.
Why is this the case?
Because social media is comforting while the world of reality is frightening. Social media offers an escape from the mundane. It offers cocktails and sunsets to your clouds and tap water. It offers beautiful people who appear as celebrities while your circle of peers is more akin to who you would find in a mini-mall from the 1990s. It offers luxury, wealth, and an escape from reality. Paradoxically, reality cannot be escaped.
The responsibilities you have to reality, to yourself, your family, your community, can be mitigated by scrolling. Yet they cannot be removed.
All you are doing is killing time and this time dies…hard.
Before you know it, you are killing the best parts of yourself.
You are dulling your potentialities and giving in to a world of illusion.
Stop this madness while you still can!
How?
How can you stop something that has become so ingrained and a part of your everyday life?
How can we remove the urge to grab for the phone as soon as we open our eyes?