I haven’t had social media for about 7 years until I got back on it in 2022. Although I am fairly disciplined when it comes to my social media use, there are still some days when I get hooked and spend hours doomscrolling. I also heavily use YouTube to learn new stuff and I inevitably run into random YouTube shorts which hooks me again for that quick dopamine hit.
The other day, I was looking at my library and the last time I read a book was a year ago! And last year I only read 2 books when I used to average about 30 to 40 books a year! It then it me that during the years when I had zero social media and when YouTube shorts didn’t exist yet, I read a lot of books!
I feel like the constant dopamine hits from short-form content has led to mental fatigue which makes me tired to read a book. The mental fatigue has to lead to physical fatigue as well – there are days when I just want to lie on my bed scrolling on my phone.
This is alarming and I need to reset and rewire my brain! I want to enjoy being focused on a book. I want to be focused on a task for long-periods of time. I need to do deep work again. Let’s go.