ᝰ.ᐟ boredom, technology, and intellect
nothing... amuses me anymore
Hi. It’s been awhile. In fact, October 20th was the last time I opened this app. I want to say I was busy with something important. Studying. Writing. Anything. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t doing anything.
Nothing amuses me anymore. Nothing gives me joy—and when something does, the joy doesn’t last.
I’ve spent most of my time on my phone. Scrolling. TikTok. Instagram. YouTube. Nothing that’s gonna help me learn something that’s gonna take me anywhere in life.
If you’re a child on the early 2000s (born in 2000-2010), then you'r mom probably said to you “it’s that damn phone” once or twice. Maybe more than that. Probably more than that. And as a child, it’s annoying to hear. Why must parents blame everything on a small rectangle with a screen?
I’m not that old, not that knowledgeable about the world, I’ll admit. But, I’m almost an adult and I can agree now, mama was right; it is that damn phone.
Have you ever accidentally left the house without your phone? You’re halfway to work, or school, when you realize your cellular device is still plugged into the wall by your bed or on your kitchen counter. You panic. You rush back to your house to grab it and now you’re late for school or work.
Is that phone really work a lecture from your boss or you teacher/professor?
To you it was. I mean, you went all the way back home to grab your phone when you were halfway away from your destination, causing you to be late.
Personally, I’ve never left my phone at home accidentally—I have done so on purpose. But I have misplaced my phone before. It usually doesn’t take me long to find it, but for the ten to twenty minutes it’s missing, I’m sweating, gasping for air and stubbling around because I’m dizzy. Hyperventilating. Over a lost piece of glass and plastic.
If you really think about it, it’s so silly, so stupid. You’re losing your mind over a means to and end?
Now, yes, a phone, just like anything else, can be and is a useful tool. You can contact friends and loved ones who live miles away. You can watch funny videos online during a much needed break from studying. You can use the internet to learn something. But ever good thing has a bad side-effect.
Take the literary decline for example.
Kids born from 2006 to 2016 cant read or write, have no reading comprehension, and can’t do math. Why is that? Well, they don’t have to! AI can do it for them! Google can answer all their math questions! ChatGPT can write their essays!
“Work smarter, not harder.” An actual excuse I saw in a comments section of a post bashing AI.
Sure, it’s easier but what happens when you actually have to put those skills you learned to work? Oh, wait. You didn’t learn anything.
I’m not too prideful to admit that my own reading comprehension skills have decreased drastically since my parents bought me a phone about six months ago.
I can’t read a book without getting bored withing a few pages. When I used to be able to read a 300 pager in four hours. I can’t go to the store without music blasting in my ear. I can’t study without classical music in my ears. I can’t sleep unless I’m falling asleep to a YouTube video.
My phone. Runs. My. Life.
I’m ashamed to admit it. But not too proud not to.
It took me nearly two hours to convice myself to put the phone away to type up this blog on my laptop (of course, I’ll be back on the phone every five minutes checking reads, likes, and comments on this post, but that’s not the point). I would’ve preferred to scroll until I passed out at 3AM.
I’m not saying you should get rid of your phone—I know I wouldn’t have the balls to. But if you can’t go more than an hour without looking at it (other than to check the time), you probably have a problem.
How do you fix it?
Well, I think that really depends on the person. What your day-to-day is like, what hobbies you enjoy, what hours you work/go to school. Most of your free time is probably spent on your phone, fueling your addiction and thus, making you lose brain cells (in my humble opinion, I’m no doctor.)
There’s really no excuse. If you’re at work, on your lunch break, you could bring a book with you to read, or a little craft. Same for if you finish an assignment early in class (I don’t know much about that second one though, I’m homeschooled, I don’t know how public school works.)
There’s really no excuse.
(Just a little brain dump/rant. Thanks for reading!")