Information overload from being on our phones all the time

[Bullship]

In less than 1 minute, I can see what several old school friends / people I met on holiday / distant relatives got up to at the weekend via FB, watch celeb stories on IG, check my bank balance, and look at the weather forecast.

And then repeat x 180 (ie prob on my phone for 3hrs per day).

That is a LOT of fairly low quality information hitting my brain.

It simply can’t be healthy can it?

All those short sharp bursts of totally random and pretty useless stuff that I let in, that I welcome.

I think it’s turning my brain to mush. Really. I am always distracted with a background thought of “oh I’ll look XYZ up on my phone, where’s my phone, oh phew it’s there” and then get sucked in. It’s like I am losing the ability to use my brain properly and almost let my phone do all the hard effort. Pretty sure I’m addicted to my phone, but I think it’s exhausting me at the same time.

My kids are getting to phone-age. Fills me with horror that their bright little brains might go in the same direction.

How do we stay engaged in real life and not succumb to information overload? Will I have more energy if I don’t allow a gazillion bits of shit info enter my head every day? Wtf would I actually do with that free time and potentially more energy?

I've literally just deleted Facebook having caught myself spending a whole hour this morning watching fecking reels of NOTHING.

I've also put my phone onto greyscale to make it less attractive.

I'm also going back to leaving it downstairs overnight so it's not the first and last thing I do everyday.

It's terrible but I can't ever see society unwinding the wrongs now.

You can get special 'light' phones which don't have any of the extra crap on them. I'm very tempted.

I don’t do social media. It’s the way forward I swear. I’m only on here because I’m a bit lonely after having my last baby while all my friends had kids young and they’re all hitting the grandparents and having their nappy free life back.

You are not alone.

Bleak.

Very well worded btw

Just delete the Facebook etc or only have folk on there you know and see in everyday life

You’re so right. I’m older generation and can see why kids are glued to their phones
Im constantly checking Twitter, the news, emails etc and I hate it. Now joined bloody Vinted and will be addicted with that now alongside Amazon
I wfh and use my phone as a timer, alarm and to watch the news.
My brain is turning to mush and I trust Google instead of finding out facts.
good post op .. you’ve made me realise how much i rely on my phone

I agree OP. I have social media accounts but deleted the apps and have not accessed them for several years.

Nothing but relief. No more comparisons, feeling left out, over analysing my life, reading about people I know of rather than know personally and worst of all, feeling overwhelmed by information overload.

I enjoy reading books, listeming to music and spending time on MN.

My world has become smaller and I love it!

How do we stay engaged in real life and not succumb to information overload?

Turn the phone off?
Delete facebook, don't look at facebook, keep the phone in your pocket unless it rings. Put the SM apps in a folder you never open. Turn off notifications. Honestly, have you no free will?

I’m the same. I’m much happier now I’ve deleted Facebook and Twitter, it just consumed and wasted so much of my time.
I also try to just put my phone away so I can enjoy reading a book again instead of reading two pages and thinking “wonder if anything new has happened out there in internet world”
it’s the first thing in my life that I would class as close to an addiction and I’ve had to really try hard to break it and don’t feel like I’ve totally cracked it at all.

I’ve been tired for what feels like years, and my GP can’t find anything physically wrong, and not that I’m a doctor but I also don’t think there’s anything physically wrong either.

I wondered if it’s just pure fatigue from so much information being thrown my way via this little rectangle electronic thing. I mean, your brain has to process everything it sees right? On top of work, kids, relationships etc. That must be tiring.

But I’m also so dependent on it. So much is done via my phone. Even excluding social media… Food shop, WhatsApp, banking, school stuff, work emails, literally everything.

I too think it can’t be unwound but geez no wonder mental health is such a thing these days.

Completely agree

YANBU
I have meetings, boring meetings where about ten mins relates to our department and I’ll scroll… and scroll and watch videos. I am so tired and I’m sure it’s because I’m looking at my phone.

I’ll even set a timer. Camera and sound off on teams. I’m getting paid to sit here and watch crap or check in on here and it’s killing me.