Have you ever been in the middle of a long, tiring assignment and desperately needed a break? Have you ever been to an event where you have no one to talk to? Have you ever been given free time but don’t know what to do with it? What do you do? How do you pass the time? Do you check your phone? Maybe call to talk to a friend? Or do you go on your social media? Your Snapchat, Instagram, Messages, or TikTok, and just start scrolling away.
It all begins with the click of a button. The lights turn on, the videos pop up, and your mind is caught in the long intricate web that is social media. The urge to keep moving your finger down up down up down up and continue flowing through several videos or photos and never stop.
Have you ever doomed yourself to an eternity of endless scrolling through random posts? It’s okay, most people do it. Those rare unicorns that delete their social media to prevent themselves from doom-scrolling are the lucky ones. They avoid the torment and inability to step away from their phone and ACTUALLY focus.
Focus, wow, what a word. It’s what we, as students, need to get anything done. However, how can we focus when we are sucked into the black hole that is the internet. Ya, it’s all fun and games, scrolling past those funny animal videos or food vlogs, but when does it stop? When will you snap back to reality and realize that 4 hours passed, not 30 min. The worst part, you probably didn’t even realize what you were doing, until it was too late.
We did a poll on the West Boca Bullseye Instagram to see how many of our students or other viewers doom scroll or if they were doom-scrolling when they found the poll. The results from our poll showed that an approximately 80% of students at West Boca doom scroll. Yikes! My fellow students, let’s move on from our screens and acknowledge the humble reality we live in. Put the phones down and wake up from the hypnotism of phones.
