I noticed pretty quickly that when stress went up screen time went followed. [I think I noticed this in part due to a post by Birchwood Pie Project (2026) about how her screen time went down when she retired from work.) I know it’s not great, but it is true that sometimes social media scrolling does give dopamine hits (Sharp & Spooner, 2025). When things are crazy, it’s just nice to have something to scroll. It’s also a little more accessible to see small bits of information versus a ton of information all at once. I noticed that when I liked my books, I did scroll social media less and read more. Still, when attention span was short, social media was my go to. I told myself I was just trying to survive. And I did, sort of.
I try to fast from social media during Lent, so clearly I am going to have to figure this scrolling thing out. For now, though at least I am becoming aware of some of the contributors to scrolling (or not). I can see social media as a resource, and it has been, for example, teaching me things about running economy, running nutrition, running shoes, etc. It has also connected me to people in some fun ways, in some cases. For example, I find out about local running events on through social media. It's not really the social media that is bad, I guess. It's just the scrolling.
All in all I guess this hasn’t been a month of less, but more. At least in the more, I've been able to be more aware of my habits and patterns. Maybe overall this year needs to be out less self-condemnation and self-flagellation and more about things that actually benefit me. Hopefully less will always make room for more. In this case, the more has mostly been about awareness.
Reference:
The Birchwood Pie Project. (2026, January 2). I retired two months ago: Here's how it's going. https://birchwoodpie.blogspot.com/2026/01/i-retired-two-month-ago-heres-how-its.html
Sharpe, B. T., & Spooner, R. A. (2025). Dopamine-scrolling: a modern public health challenge requiring urgent attention. Perspectives in public health, 145(4), 190–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/17579139251331914
My vote is to focus less on scrolling and more on bringing in things that benefit you!
ReplyDeleteI was not planning to give up social media, but as soon as I stopped working I found that it became much less appealing. I took the Insta app off my phone and haven't put it back on, and I barely go on LinkedIn anymore. I still use FB for events, but I don't read through my feed anymore. Like you, I always felt that I was learning so much from it, and that was true, but I was also wading through a lot of garbage to get there. I'm not saying that I will never go back to social, but right now it just doesn't appeal.
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DeleteThanks for your thoughtful comment, and for sharing about your own journey with social media on your blog. I probably should have cited your blog (adding that now), because your comment about using social media so much less after retirement made me think about the "why" of my scrolling. And I need to consider more how much "garbage" I do see, and if it is really worth it. There have to be other ways to get the "good stuff."
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