Why I started?
Every moment I had empty time in my day, I would fill up with just doomscrolling on instagram for hours until I caught myself doing it too much, before I knew it minutes turned into hours. Literally wasting time. I also was suffering from brain-fog a lot suddenly forgetting what I was doing and moving from one unfinished task to another unfinished task.
I tried looking for other solutions like a time limit of 30 min or just putting my phone somewhere else, but that did not help at all… So I long-pressed the icon. Hold + Delete and confirm and bye bye Insta and threads (yes I am one of those threads users).
What else to do when no insta?
So the first few hours I caught myself repeatedly picking up my phone and just looking for the Insta app instinctively, well my boy it was not there. So I looked for other things to do, When I was at home I would just work on my house more, vacuum and try to finish it before jumping to the next task like laundry and cooking. Bit by bit my mind was letting my phone either on the charger or in my pocket.
When I went outside I would simply leave my phone in my pocket and just walk. The only times I would pick up my phone was to check a notification from my friends and family, take a picture and skip to the next track. It made me feel like I was more out there and seeing a bit more of the place I am living in. In fact I can recommend anyone to do this, my body automatically found things to do instead of doomscrolling.
Productivity increase?
Well here is a shocker, productivity has not really increased yet in my opinion, it’s still the same. However! My brain-fog is decreasing at an increasing rate. During salah I found myself more focussing on Allah and making way less mistakes. I can remember more what I am about to do and my days are just less about being a hermitcrab and more about “Okay what is there to do today”. Another thing I noticed is more about…
Feelings and emotions that have been parked away…
Yes, doomscrolling is often just a way for people to escape their emotions and just keep the mind busy with endlessly unnecessary information. Our brains love that. I found myself feeling my emotions more then before and because of that I felt more alive, sadness came and went. First it was a big pile up, but later when I processed it (by journalling or just actively doing things with the emotion it self) it decreased. I still feel it of course but it is getting manageable.
As a man it is often considered taboo not to feel from a cultural perspective, I would like to tell you dear reader that feeling emotions is perfectly okay. In Islam it is considered a natural response, even the Prophet Muhammed ﷺ wept and cried when his son Ibrahim passed away.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
…“The eyes shed tears and the heart feels sorrow, but we only say what pleases our Lord.”… Sahih al-Bukhari 1303 Partial
What else?
In short some of the other things I noticed:
- More engaging conversations with people.
- Overall more focus.
- More the feeling of wanting to be out there and do things.
- Less roaching inside the house.
- The urge to start gyming again.
- Less neck pain.
- Closer to my deen.
Closing
It is clear that doomscrolling functioned as a coping mechanism for me. I did not think that emotions would suddenly find themselves above water, I always thought that I just let it be and battled through it (became stronger at keeping them in) but that was just the doomscrolling and my brain being high on dopamine. I can’t wait to notice what next week does. I am not sure how long I would take this experiment for… Probably indefinitely.