date >> 20240928
listening to >> lorkhan - young scrolls
For about a few months or so now, I've been putting efforts into unchaining myself from my phone and bringing down my screentime as best as I can. There have been some lapses here and there, I will admit, but I've definitely cut down on my average compared to how it was a couple of years ago when I was still active on Twitter, or essentially living my day-to-day in Sky, especially during the pandemic lockdown. I wouldn't doubt it for one second if I had to guess that my average screentime back then was upwards of 10 hours. Now though, with my redoubled efforts, I've been hitting an average of 4 and it's getting lower by the day, which I'm incredibly proud of.
Most of that time is probably spent in YouTube, to be honest, but I've cleared out and turned off my watch history a long time ago, so that I'd only end up watching stuff in my subscription box. And even then, it's just stuff I put on in the background while I do my dailies in XIV. Which reminds me - I need to clean out my sub box again. It's becoming a yearly cleaning at this point, and I think it's a good habit to have.
I fear the only thing that's keeping me from fully putting down my phone is Spotify. It's not something I can easily let go of, either, as I'm the one in my family footing the bill for the family plan, so it's not like I can just cancel the subscription and wholly cut it out from my life, especially with their treatment of artists on the platform. I've been slowly collecting my favorite music as physical media at this point in efforts to reduce my reliance on streaming, but I have a long way to go until my library in Spotify is essentially replaced.
It's no secret - to myself, at least - that I have been increasingly looking back at flip phones as well. At this point, I'm yearning for something like a keitai, where you can still have some smartphone functionality when it's needed but ultimately will just be used as a tool at the end of the day. I'd like to think that I'm getting there with the phone I currently have, since now I'm mainly using it for communication, music and navigation. I do slip up sometimes and find myself scrolling on Tumblr for far longer than I'd like, but I made a point to have my dashboard be very curated so that I can easily catch up with my scrolling and I don't end up spending too much time on it.
In terms of replacing that habit of picking up my phone during downtime (like for example, DPS queue times...), I've slowly gotten back to reading again. The Trials of Apollo is honestly a really good start, as it's meant for younger readers (so it's easier to pick up) and it's on a subject matter that I care about, as I've been following the series ever since I read the first book in 4th grade. On the rare times I have downtime at work, I doodle in blank spaces, or I think about the lorebuilding I've been doing with a friend. The other day, when I was waiting for a to-go order I was picking up, I found myself perfectly content in just letting my phone sit on the table while I left myself alone with my thoughts. I just watched people come and go and just let my thoughts wander. It felt rather nice, actually.
At the end of the day, though, while I am making efforts to unchain myself from my phone, I am still a person with interests that lie in the digital world. I would not be myself if I just dropped video games entirely. It's also difficult to drop a game when you're in the throes of a hyperfixation to said video game as well. Other than that, I've been spending much of my time working on this website as of late. And funny enough, I don't spend too much time in websites like Tumblr or Reddit while on my PC or laptop, and only use YouTube to listen to music not available in Spotify. In that sense, I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job spending time away from my phone. It's just that that time is instead spent in FFXIV with my friend that I also see often in real life (that said, I've been spending less time on the game on a day-to-day basis as well, as I've been caught up with the MSQ all the way to Dawntrail, and I just log on to do my duty roulette for leveling). Overall, playing video games is a hobby of mine that makes me happy, while scrolling endlessly through Twitter doesn't.
All in all, there has indeed been some setbacks with unchaining myself from my phone, but once I get my hands on a keitai that actually works with my cellular provider, it's so over for my average screentime. That thing will go down to 30 minutes, just you watch.