The last book I read in 2025 was 'You Should Quit Reddit' by Jacob Desforges and one of the first books I read this year was 'Digital Minimalism' by Cal Newport. A big thing both books pointed out to me was that a lot of social media sites have gotten REALLY good at keeping our attention and how much of a grip social media has on many of us. Smartphones also play a big part in this because they make it so easy to connect to these sites at any time and that's where I sunk so much time.

Gradually since 2024, I've been more mindful about my smartphone/social media usage. First, I placed timers on the apps I spent too much time on. It worked sometimes and helped with my overall screen time; some days I would fall under the 15 minute timers I placed on Instagram but some other days I would ignore the timer and have 3 hours spent on Instagram. Recently, with inspiration from the books mentioned above, I've gone ahead and deleted Reddit and YouTube from my phone and tablet. Those two sites alone could fill up my whole day if I let them and deleting them was sadly tougher than I expected.

I've limited all my social media usage to my PC which has dramatically helped me reduce my mindless scrolling and YouTube habits. Even though I have access to all the time-wasting sites on my PC, I just haven't used them as much (probably because a PC isn't as convenient as a smartphone or tablet).

Because I'm not so connected on my phone or tablet, I've been spending more time doing other things I enjoy; reading, creating (and fixing) this blog, (attempting) running. And for the first time in a while, I don't feel the need to go down a YouTube rabbit hole or endlessly scroll on Reddit for the next thing. I feel like I'm getting time back that I didn't realize I lost.

I've been trying to find ways to stay informed outside of social media and have been giving RSS a try and it's been a refreshing change. My current RSS feed has some NFL/Bucs news, NPR, and some bloggers that I've enjoyed reading. And yes, I do realize the irony in trying to reduce my social media usage while also trying RSS and writing/creating a blog but something about these things feel different, I can't explain it. Maybe it's how I don't scroll through comments sections on these articles from my RSS feed/bloggers. Either way it's been a good change for me and I'm happy about it.

I feel like this entry is a mess and frankly, I'm only at the start of this 'digital detox' as of January 10th so I can't act like my whole life has changed. I am trying to be better with my time though and this whole effort feels like a step forward. I have so many things to say and thoughts on this attempt at digital detox but perhaps I'll sprinkle those in other entries.

So yes, I'm a little bored but that's not a bad thing!