My experience trying to distance myself from the digital hell we have created for ourselves.

BuddingLast updated: 1 December 2025tags: personal, internet

On July 21:st 2025 I told the world (My 50 followers) that I would be quitting Tumblr, and that it would be my last “connection” to the mainstream digital world. All fun and games. Writing this, it’s the 30:th of November and I’m surviving the day on 3 hours of sleep. My night went something like this:
-22.30: Try to sleep
-23.00: Go up to get a drink of water, try to sleep.
-23.30: Do a guided meditation, try to sleep.
-00.00: Get another drink of water, try to sleep.
-01.30: Maybe it’s too hot and too little oxygen in here, move to guestroom, try to sleep
-02.30: “How to fall asleep fast”, try to sleep
-04.00: Eat two crispbread, scroll on Pinterest for an hour, delete Pinterest account, try to sleep.
-05.00: Finally getting tired
-06.00: Oh the road lights turned on
-08.30: Wake up, having slept around 3 hours in total, feeling like a sentient wet dishrag.
My point is not my sleeping issues. Well, that too, but it’s not the focal point. Did I not say I was going to quit everything scroll:able? Then why did I spend an hour doomscrolling on Pinterest, looking at Our Flag Means Death-memes? Well, let’s just say, my attempt to distance myself from the digital echo chambers we have has gone… alright. It hasn’t went well, but I suppose it hasn’t gone badly either. I’ve had all my accounts on everything left, but I haven’t really gone to check on anything, I haven’t gotten stuck doomscrolling as often as I used to. If I got stuck every day back then, I only do once a month now. Which is a significant improvement!
Although, I’ve still kept being a personality on some places of the web, like my website and Discord. But somehow I feel, that I spend equally as much time on those as I used to do on Tumblr, Pinterest and Youtube. And to be honest, it kind of sucks! And a lot of the things I want to do in real life, requires many times a computer or a smartphone to do it, at least to make it more fun. Cause it isn’t really that fun to try drawing complicated buildings without a reference, and oh, should I check the server at the same time, oh I know, I’ll search inspiration on Pinterest! And I’m back to where I begun.
The reasons behind me wanting to quit being so dependent on the digital world are many. To begin with, it takes up a lot of time I could spend doing other stuff. Stuff that is more fun, that teaches me something, something I can remember, something that is healthier. I’ve got a lot of hobbies, hobbies that take a lot of time and dedication. I think I really realized how strange my digital presence felt, when I noticed that I only cared about what I did in real life when I had an opportunity to talk about it on social media. I hope that I never will go back to that state. Second, I care a lot about the world. I care a lot about my friends and family, the environment around me, I need to have the attention span to study, and to in general enjoy life. If my attention span has been burned away from spending time scrolling mindlessly, looking at stuff I do not care about nor want to look at, then what is there to enjoy? And third, it hurts my eyes, hurts my neck and back, and gives me headaches. It is an addiction, but it is an addiction that is very difficult to break out of in this day and age.
The internet and smart devices are used for just about everything nowadays. Well, that’s an understatement. But a lot of things require you to use your phone or computer, oftentimes more than I think is needed. And oftentimes, we use screens more than is healthy for us. Now, I’m not trying to preach about how we need to go back to the stone age and that all modern technology sucks. I think technology can be great. It can be useful, it can help people, it can make things more convenient. But I don’t think technology should do human things for humans. The technology behind solar panels is improving constantly, we’ve got high speed trains that take us from one place to the other, we’ve got music that we can carry in our pockets, we’ve got radios, we’ve got so much stuff already. All those I mentioned, I think are good stuff. They do not keep us from doing human things, they actually help us. And it Is of course, human to create things and make new technology. And hey, the internet isn’t all bad either! But the way it’s formed now, and the way I tend to become attached to things, it feels like quicksand, making me stick to my chair, falling deeper and deeper into rabbit holes. And it feels like being social. It really does. Sometimes you are. But how social are you, I you are spending five hours per day looking at nothing in particular?
If the world went my way, I’d get myself a flip-phone that you can call and text with. Well, I don’t own the world and I never will, so instead all we can do is change our behaviors. So what’s my advice from living on the other side (of the screen)? I’ve got four key points that I’ve learned now.
1. You don’t need a new phone. Stick with the one you’ve got, you have the freedom to change it up however you like. Make it personal, make it yours, make it have the services you need and nothing more. You bought that thing. And repair it if it breaks, it’s a waste of resources. If you want a less distracting phone, I recommend launchers like Olauncher or Lunar Launcher, they’re both open source and work pretty nicely. Same thing goes for your computer, or whatever it is you’ve got. Use it til it breaks, when it does you repair it, change it up how you want, it’s yours.
2. Delete all your social media accounts. If you only get rid of one it’s highly likely you’ll just jump to the other and your screentime won’t really decrease. Even get rid of the really obscure ones that you don’t use that often. Cause sooner or later you’ll be stressed or anxious or you’re having a really bad day and you NEED to get out of that headspace somehow and that’s when you take to anything. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Have a backup plan. Have something that you resort to instead of a screen when you feel panicked or when you need some escapism. It might not give the same immediate relief, but believe me when I say it is much healthier in the long run. For example, I struggle with anxiety, so wherever I go I always have chewing gum or some type of minty candy with me, since it gives me new sensory input, and makes me focus on one thing, in this case my mouth. But you can have anything. A keyring you always hook onto your belt loop that you can fidget with, a comic book you glimpse through, a lip balm with a flavor you enjoy. And it’s of course always good to practice our crisis management by trying different breathing exercises, the 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can physically feel, 2 things you can smell and one thing you can taste thing, and so on and so forth. This is, I feel the most important point.
4. Get a hobby. If you’re someone who scrolls 8+ hours a day, I know how weird it can be whenever someone asks about your free time. Don’t worry, I’ve been there! A hobby, in my case crocheting, is what broke me out of that lifestyle. You need to have something you enjoy, that you can do without a smart device near you. Of course, if we’re talking crocheting now, you might not find that Pokémon-plush pattern you want at your local library, and there’s nothing at all wrong in looking up the pattern for that online! But you get me, you won’t need a screen when you make a 257:th half-double crochet. And if you haven’t got a hobby to begin with, try out of lots of different things. Sooner or later you’ll find something that interests you, wether that’s skiing or scrapbooking.
That’s my advice. Take them if you want, leave them if you want, change them up if you want. They’re yours now. And as you can see from the beginning of the text, I'm not perfect either. It's been a lot of trial and error to even get this far. But I'm proud of the progress I've made. But I still feel there is work to be done. When I know more, I will tell. And if you don’t know what you want to do, I recommend you to go to your local library and look around for an hour one day. Go there, one hour. Walk around, look through books, learn where what books are where. It’s a nice way to spend your time and you might find something interesting there. I wish you good luck in your journey.