The other day I picked up my phone to check one thing – literally just a message – and somehow, like 20 minutes passed. I was just sitting there, kind of slouched, thumb moving without even thinking, and the screen lighting up my face while one video blurred into the next. I wasn’t even paying full attention. Just scrolling, switching between apps, refreshing for no reason. And the weird part is, I didn’t even realize I was doing it until I stopped.

That happens way more than I’d like to admit.

I’ll catch myself reaching for my phone without even realizing – like I’ll already have it in my hands before I actually think, why did I pick this up? It’s in those small moments too. Waiting for something to load, sitting down for a minute, even in between doing homework. There’s always an urge to fill the silence immediately and I don’t think that’s great.

I’ve even noticed it when I’m with other people. Sometimes when I’m hanging out with friends, we all just end up on our phones without meaning to. Like everyone’s there, but no one’s really there. So we’ve started creating phone piles in the middle of tables, just so we actually talk to each other. And while it doesn’t always work, there have been improvements. And honestly, that shows how used we’ve gotten to the constant distraction.

Now it feels like there’s no such thing as being bored. The second things get quiet, there’s always something to replace that feeling. But being bored used to actually mean something. It forced you to sit there, let your mind wander and daydream, notice random details about you. It gave you the chance to jump from one random thought to another, replaying conversations, imagining things that haven’t even happened, noticing the smallest of details. And now it’s just constant noise.

I’ve noticed it’s harder to focus too. Like if something doesn’t grab me right away, I lose interest. I often have to skip through videos, sometimes refreshing my feed for something new before watching it at 2x speed with my utmost attention. Everything has to be fast, entertaining, or it just doesn’t feel worth it. And I know that probably comes from being so used to quick, endless content all the time.

I’m not completely off my phone or anything, as I still use it a lot. But I have been trying, at least a little, to not grab it every single time there’s nothing to do. Like just letting a few minutes pass without immediately filling it. And yeah, it feels kind of uncomfortable at first, like something’s missing. 

But I think that’s the point.

We’ve gotten so used to avoiding that uncomfortable feeling that we don’t even give ourselves a chance to deal with it anymore. And I think we have to. Like actually letting ourselves sit there with nothing to do, even if it feels awkward or boring at first. 

Because right now, it feels like we’re all stuck in this shell that our phones create, where everything is easy and fast and constantly distracting. And the longer we stay in it, the harder it is to step out.

So maybe it’s not about completely getting rid of our phones, but just being more willing to put them down sometimes. To be a little uncomfortable. To actually be bored.