Sadly, this same tactic is alive today, but on a much grander scale. Both adults and children have fallen into a cycle of constant distraction, filling every spare moment with mindless phone scrolling or TV watching. We consume sloppy, superficial content that leaves no room for fertile boredom, mind wandering, deep exploration and work—the very conditions that lead to original thought, unique insights, inner peace, meaningful action, and exceptional outcomes. Even life’s essentials—sleep, exercise, hobbies, chores, and relationships—have been displaced by screens. Continuously and uncontrollably feeding your brain morsels of low-quality and inch-deep headlines, reels, tweets, or forward isn’t going to make you an intellectual juggernaut or make your life better; it has quite the opposite effect. We’ve become half-present zombies, with foggy brains and attention spans reduced to that of a goldfish, all while sacrificing our incredible capacity to learn, create, be present, and act toward real well-being and self-actualization.
This constant distraction and gluttonous nutrient-deficient brain food consumption is rarely a conscious choice. We are not pausing to ask ourselves why we’ve picked up our phone for the 30th time today and whether it’s serving any purpose. It’s pure dopamine-driven impulsivity, an addictive behavior we’ve barely noticed creeping in. This may be a tough pill to swallow, but the reality is we have become tools of our tools. We are mindlessly giving up on the core essence of our lives - time and attention - to other zombies, charlatans, and advertisers. The addiction has taken our agency to grow our minds and live our lives well.
You can live and perform better than 90% of the population if you radically cut your screen time. Create space for something better. When you find your hands instinctively reaching for the phone, swap it with something less charged and more useful —a book, a magazine, a notebook to journal and create, a necessary chore, a conversation, or even a simple walk. Or just sit quietly, think or be bored! Treat your phone like you’d treat any addictive and pleasurable drug; establish strict boundaries, limit use considerably, and allocate significantly more days and hours of the week to not using than using.
If you are currently a heavy user, the only truly effective way is to quit cold turkey. Delete the apps, and if you’re serious, consider downgrading to a basic phone. Incremental reductions and relying on willpower rarely work with something this addictive, especially if you are deeply addicted. Within a few days, the fog of digital addiction will lift, and you’ll start to experience life—and yourself—fully once again.