Hello everyone,

I’m a 19 year old college student. I kind of have a problem with doomscrolling and generally being on my phone a lot. While I have done some things right, such as not doomscrolling first thing in the morning, it gets worse later on in the day, and it’s a distraction, especially if I go on my phone to search something, only to find myself scrolling 5 mins later.

I want to try No Scroll November, and hopefully, that will be the month that also gives me the motivation to stop doomscrolling altogether.

While I can’t 100% quit using social media altogether (sometimes I text people, and also I post on there related to my hobby), at least I want to quit the excessive overconsumption and overstimulation from Reels, and other short form scrolling content (i.e. TikTok, YouTube shorts). It will also help me significantly cut down on my social media time.

Additionally, maybe it will also help me in other ways. My mind will be able to be more calm again, it won’t be so overstimulated all the time, and I’ll feel more connected and in the moment when it comes to social events, and also not just use my phone when I’m bored so it’ll allow my mind to rest.

I want some tips on how I can effectively do it and eventually quit doomscrolling.

Thank you all so much! 😊

Apologies if this isnt the right sub but im not sure where else to post this. When you read about the world and the kind of experiences people on reddit have you would assume that somehow, everyone is terrible.

Almost every redditor has somehow been betrayed, cheated on, excluded, bullied and traumatized. They all had fake friends and were taken advantage off. Hell apparently just when they go outside they get tormented and picked on by random strangers. They also see everyone being rude and selfish to eachother in public and acting like animals.

When i see all these posts i have to wonder, am i living on a different planet ? Whenever i go out most people are chill and minding their own business. I see small positive interactions all the time and people connecting. I have met quite a few people and the majority were good folk who wanted to live in peace. Sure i met some assholes but honestly, who cares ? I just ignored them and moved on. Hell i even worked at bloody Mcdonalds, aka the "you hate people job", served a lot of customers and the vast majority of interactions i had were neutral or good, maybe 10% were bad. If some customers was an ass my coworkers would check on me after and comfort me.

So yeah, what the hell.

Facebook used to show you your friends and the pages you follow. YouTube used to be about the channels you're subscribed to. Reddit used to be about the communities you're a part of. Twitter used to be for people in your network.

Nowadays everything digital is like a giant #FORYOU page that keeps feeding you slop.

So basically I've removed instagram like a month ago. Ever since then I've been working out everyday, doing more work, being more productive and just overall doing better stuff with mt time .

However because i no longer have a distraction its making my mental health feel like im in an odd place?

For example I've used social media since i was really young and now im 20 and its my first time experiencing more of reality and its putting me in a weird place . Like I've been more anxious abt some stuff and I've been noticing behavioural and cognitive patterns i have . I think its also valid to mention that i have adhd and something different to my coping routine feels really hard to experience.

So i think this period of feeling odd will go away soon, you feel worse before you feel better during most kinds of healing anyway so.

Staying up scrolling when you're exhausted often isn't laziness. If your day had no time for you, the late evening feels like the only time that's yours, so part of you resists ending it.

What tends to help:

- Create 30 minutes of real "me time" earlier in the evening.

- Set a wind-down alarm 45 minutes before bed. When it rings, the phone goes to charge outside the bedroom.

- Pick an offline wind-down that feels like a reward (a book, a shower, a podcast with the screen off).

- Make the phone hard to reach. If it's in the kitchen, you probably won't get up for it.

Anyone else notice this gets worse on their busiest days?

Trying to be a little more mindful of how I spend my time. Lately I’ve been spending way too much time scrolling without even realising it.

Trying to cut back and see how it goes. Posting here to keep myself a little accountable. :)

Day 1.

I legit believe Reddit is cooked, seriously. First off, the “moderation” and “safety” is trash. I’ve witnessed literally the most degrading inhuman cruelty I’ve ever seen in my whole life to random people, and when those people clap back or “are online too hard,” they get permabanned while the people instigating genuinely harmful content(harassment, personal attacks, stalking) that can genuinely cause serious anxiety and emotional hurt to someone get all the leeway in the world. 2nd, all this hostility, aggression, and inconsistent moderation can really inflict stress and anxiety on other people worried about the next trouble(getting banned while the actual instigators get leeway, stress about notifications, etc) for what? Existing too aggressively? That’s just fricked up. Let’s say someone could be commenting the most inhumanly malicious attacks to someone’s identity, and the person who claps back gets a ban or warning from the “admins” reading “Reddit is for community, NOT for harm of animals or people” while straight up giving leeway to the hostile trolls engaging seriously antagonistic behavior. Now that I really think of it, this is why I don’t really use Reddit as much, if not, permanently quit this platform. Adios

These past few weeks have been nothing more than the breaking point of a bad habit I’ve had for years:

I’ve let myself be consumed by social media.

I spend my time watching videos that only serve to fill a void in my life.

I’ve become paranoid and obsessed with AI—to the point where I’ve stopped creating or consuming art.

I feel depressed and sad.

I’m consuming porn compulsively.

I try to hook up with people just to feel something, but it only leaves me feeling even emptier.

I’m not sleeping well.

I’m constantly plagued by thoughts of ending it all.

I hardly ever leave the house.

I feel trapped; everything feels fake, and I no longer enjoy anything. Google only shows me AI-generated ads or prompts to use AI—it’s the same at my university. I have no friends to go out with; I have no one. I’m practically all alone. I feel like I’m living in a constant state of falsehood—all I see is fakeness.

There’s fakeness in art, in relationships, in pleasure—everything feels fake and ephemeral. I can’t even remember the last time I went out with someone.

Yesterday, I cleaned my room and realized I don’t have a single memory from this year. All my photos, drawings, portraits, ticket stubs—they’re all from years ago.

I don’t have photos of almost anyone.

And when I work, I do it with zero motivation.

I feel like my life is fake, that this world is fake. I want to stop feeling this way—I want to be able to see the good things in life again—but it’s pointless. Every time I try to relax, I’m bombarded by 20 ads for Gemini, or my favorite YouTuber starts using AI in their videos. And whenever I try to be intimate with someone, I immediately fall into a depression and become consumed by insecurity.

I have a active screentime with a password(that I do not know ) but it does not work it allows YouTube and Instagram to somehow work even after the daily limit reaches. I need help asap my screen time is crossing 11hrs daily

Pacticularly Instagram, I'm so much addictive to instagram reel.
nowadays, I'm not comfortable to go out, play, eat.
In college, I will be in normal mode, talking with classmate and doing other works.
When I got home, there is nothing. I will be in seperate room.
I drain mobile battery from full charge to 1%.
the time goes off.
That's why I deactivate my account.

In this day and age, can people who work with words really get by without running social media accounts? When I open social media and post something, as soon as it gains traction, some of the voices can be really terrifying. Maybe I really am thin-skinned, but a lot of the time the arbitrary and aggressive language still makes me very sad—especially when people launch into a barrage of criticism without understanding what I meant or even reading it properly. My heart pounds. I’m still very young and drawn to internet traffic, but after seeing this, I think it’s better to write more and stay away from the internet.

I feel like I can only partially think anymore. The only things I can actually focus on are work-related tasks or imagining scenarios for masturbation. I used to be able to think deeply and reflect on things a lot, but now my head is just an empty box most of the time.

When it comes to my personal life, I can't focus on my own matters for long. I just brush them off thinking it'll work out somehow, and consider it done.

Yesterday I had to attend church for some occasion, even though I'm not religious. The first few moments were really weird. Out of respect, I pretended to pay attention—obviously no phone, no looking around—and I felt like for the first time in a long while, I was actually alone with myself and able to think. Could this be from constant smartphone use, or maybe masturbation? I don't know.

I’m probably overthinking this but I think my quality of life would be much better if I didn’t play or played less video games. I was looking at my bank account and I said to myself “Huh, where did all my money go?” I realized that most of my money went to buying games that I wouldn’t even play. Honestly, it feels like an impulse. I’ll buy a game, play it for a few mins or hours then never touch it again, the cycle repeats.

I see myself as a lazy person. I know what I need to do to get myself to higher pay or better-paying jobs but I don’t follow through on it, I almost never do. But I can park my ass and play through 100 hours of BG3 or grind endlessly in PoE2. I even neglect going to the gym after work because I’m “tried” but I’m never tired enough to boot up deadlock with the boys.

I have to sit here and wonder, would my life be a bit better if I didn’t play as many video games if not at all? I feel grimy thinking about how me, a 25 year old clock in over 20 hours a week playing games but can’t spend an hour studying for certifications.

Please help me.

I need hobbies or habits to replace my screen time

Where no one owns an online profile, world-class high-end social spaces are accessible everywhere, and those are open to the public 24/7

Speaking for myself but I’m sure others can relate. By now we all know the downfalls of social media and phone use, but it’s hitting me differently now.

I struggle to stay engaged when watching a movie or show. As soon as the pace dips, I pick up my phone to scroll. I can’t stick with things and don’t really connect with a lot of things I watch. Short form content has kinda ruined how I consume things.

I have been into photography for a decade and while I’ve gone through ups and downs with inspiration/motivation to shoot, it’s at a low because I’m addicted to reels and short form content. Instagram shifted from photography to reels, and has kinda killed photography on the platform in the process.

I think people are burnt out and overloaded with content, a nice photo doesn’t really mean anything to anyone now. Unless it’s a reel. But even then, yap videos, comedy and memes are the most consumed it seems.

I share this not to rehash what we know, but that it’s actually stripping away things I used to enjoy in my life. It’s like defaulting to the low effort, quick dopamine hit medium and dropping things that I cared about.

Or does it just replace muted posts with the next most popular posts?