Scrolling to our doom

By Lulu Dlamini

Photo taken by Peter Snaterse

The use of technology and media has done a great deal for humanity. All the complicated stuff can be done in mere seconds, and it is right at our fingertips. It has shown to improve productivity, connectivity and increase efficiency. It is a great place to learn about the world around you, but it does have its disadvantages. As we consume the data that technology gives us, are we slowly being consumed by it?

Being absorbed in technology happens to a lot of us, and it targets all ages. With the younger ones, parents are worried that their children are consuming what is known as “Brain rot.” Cartoons that are supposed to be educational and fun are now distracting, loud and overstimulating. This high consumption ​​of media, such as YouTube and the constant exposure to TikTok, is getting in the way of their learning at school. A US teacher shared her experience, and she stated that the students cannot read because they have technology doing it for them. They have a heavy reliance on  AI, when they should be working for themselves. Critical and independent thinking need to develop at this point in time and unfortunately with this reliance on technology they might not.

Photo taken from Istock/Andresr

Another issue with technology and the internet is the unhealthy amount of time we spend on it. According to Jonathan Rothwell, teenagers spend about five hours a day on social media and sometimes even more. This disrupts your sleep patterns, your mental health and will affect your learning abilities.

The constant exposure to screen time eats away at your dopamine levels, exhausting you. This drainage unfortunately, just like a drug, will continue to demand you to use it. Spending a lot of time consuming media will affect your attention span as it shortens by the minute. Some people prefer to watch videos at 2x speed just so whatever they are watching can get to the point and they can move on to the next thing. You get so used to scrolling it becomes second nature. As you continue to immerse yourself in the media you lose all the hobbies you used to enjoy. Reading a book becomes almost dreadful because you are too used to quick, colourful, and loud videos that get right to the point, so your patience alters and so does your eagerness to sit and learn the “old fashioned way”.

As mentioned the media does have its advantages but most of the time the cause of your problems could just be, and like your mom says “That damn phone!”. You start to develop insecurities about yourself;  envy other people’s lives; compare yourself, and you lose the motivation to want to do the things you were so passionate about. You waste time and spend the rest of your days looking at a screen and wonder why it is 2025 when it felt like  2016 yesterday.

There was a video that went viral about how New Years looked in the 2000's versus how it looks now. In the 2000s, everyone was dancing, running around and playing with each other while in 2025 every single person had their phones out recording the fireworks. Understandably, there weren’t many phones that could record around that time. I’m not being biased and saying people who record moments shouldn’t, by all means they can. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to capture a moment, but it is okay to put the phone down and just experience the time you are in.

This does not only happen to the youth, but the older generation as well. Most seniors spend their time alone, so they are also consumed by social media. People should understand that living in the moment is the most important thing you can do for yourself. As long as you are alive, you can have new hobbies that will fulfill you, instead of watching other people live the life you want. Living won’t kill you, but scrolling will.

Photo taken by Marcus Roberts

It is a hard thing to let go of social media, but we need to implement ways in which we reduce screen time before we scroll to our doom. The currency does not seem to be money anymore, but your attention that you give while people gain from the time you lose. Give your thumb a break, use your body instead…