That’s how we (sc)roll!
Only To Find Things Spiralling Way Down The Rabbit Hole
Riddhi Rastogi, XII D & Ishanya Sharma, XI A, AIS Gurugram 43
Have a headache? Didn’t finish your homework? Your phone is responsible. Couldn’t travel to moon? No matter what the situation is, the root cause of all things wrong seems to be a phone. For sure, our parents have informed us of that with their incessant nagging, but only now do we wonder – wait a minute, are they right? Is the time we spent on our phone, scrolling the reason for our downfall?
The phone in hand is lifeline
We must stare at it all the time
An average person picks up their phone at least 52 times a day, and the ongoing pandemic has increased the number ten-fold. According to AppAnnie, Indians spend at least one-third of their day on mobiles, due to which India stands fifth in world’s excessive use of phones. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and South Korea saw people using their phones for over five hours a day, and an average US adult spends around four hours a day on their device. But what exactly are we doing with our phones for so long?
Into the pit of SNS we fall
And there we scroll & scroll
The invention of social networking service (SNS) has been a game changer. According to Instagram, users spent an average of 13 hrs every month on the app in 2021. Facebook, too, witnessed around two billion active users daily. But such a rise in numbers was recorded because SNS was the only source of information. The trend to stay updated led to doomscrolling– endless scrolling to binge on negative content. Even Twitter saw a record 24% increase in its users. Ruined sleep schedule increased night scrolling by 57% as per GISS. But isn’t this bad for us?
It sinks our life, down we go
We’re not like we were before
Being glued to these sites sure is a great way of wasting our time. However, that’s the least of our worries. In fact, the increased use of social media has been linked with depression and PTSD. As per Healthline, around 49% adults have self-reported symptoms of depression in the last two years, and the rate of depression in adolescents increased to more than 60% in 2005. Even if we were to look at less harrowing effects, the evidence of scrolling hampering our sleep and attention span is as clear as day. Increased screen time affects our gut, leading to anxiety, nausea, headaches, muscle tension, and tremors. This same little screen has made us chase perfect lives as we see on social media; increased our FOMO, messed up with our sanity, and over all have caused more harm than good. So, why can’t we just give it up?
Turn mad but don’t look away
Our sanity is now fully astray
In theory, we understand mindless scrolling ends up offering us nothing concrete, but still we cling to it. Many people have admitted that the dire need to keep themselves updated further makes them stuck in the scrolling circle. With new content comes a new shot of dopamine, and every new ‘ding’ compels us to fall down a new well that never ends, and we are aware of it. So, why don’t we try to climb out?
The addiction of scrolling is easily said to be beaten than its actuality. Even when some, in its favour, might argue that correlation does not equal causality, it is tough to dismiss such high number of annexures when they all point fingers against it. So, will all of this teach us to scroll less, or will we all just scroll past this article and continue the fall downwards?
