The Importance of Disconnecting

I don't think it's any secret that doomscrolling and watching shortform content is not only addicting, but has actual detrimental effects on attention spans and mental health. It wastes hours of your day, and prevents you from reaching your true potential. Look at your Screen Time, and imagine what you could accomplish if you put all those hours into a hobby or education.

These companies are trying their best and have spent literal BILLIONS of dollars to keep you on their apps as long as possible with no regard for your mental health. Countless studies have come out revealing the decline in mental health due to these predatory apps, and no regulation has been put in place to stop or even halt it (I think we all know why, but that's a whole other conversation). This leaves the responsibilty to us to take care of our own mental health, and be mindful of our actions.
(For a more in-depth read/rant, check out manifesto on the sidebar)

EDC

An EDC is a trend in which people show the items they bring with them every day. They're common in decentralization groups, such as r/dumbphones, to show and discuss how you've replaced your phone with other (usually more analog) substitutes. Here's my EDC!

And here's another great EDC I found online! (Link)

Tips to Decentralize Your Life

1. START SMALL - You are not going to cut your smartphone out of your life overnight. If you go cold turkey, you WILL fail. Step 1 could be just deleting your social media apps. This was honestly the most noticable change for me. Once you get a dumb phone, you could start by just using it when you leave the house. This at least forces you to focus on the task at hand and enjoy your surroundings. And if you're with people, it encourages you to actually speak to them.
2. DON'T GIVE UP - Oh, you redownloaded Instagram because you had to "message a friend quick", and then realized you've been doomscrolling 6 hours a day for a week? Oh well, what's done is done. Just delete it again. Don't beat yourself up, champ.
3. ADD FRICTION - The easiest way to not do something, is to make the annoyance of doing it stronger than the desire to do it. This is why tossing your phone across the room while you're doing homework is so effective. This is why deleting social media apps works so well. This is also why dumb phones are great. You can't doomscroll when you literally can't scroll at all!
4. REPLACEMENTS ARE KEY - There's a reason that smartphones became so prevalent even before they were the toxic, addictive, soul-draining machines that they are today... because they're useful. Getting rid of your smartphone (or at least using it less). Don't even bother getting a dumb phone until you know how you plan to replace all of the useful parts of it (notes, camera, music player).
5. (BONUS) ANTI-CONSUMERISM FTW - Getting a brand new modded iPod, some Field Notes, a Sony Alpha 7, and a pink 902-KC seem fun, but that's gonna put you back QUITE a bit of cash. Or you could just start with a thrifted CD player, grab a random pocket notebook you have laying around in your school supply bin, and get a used flip phone off ebay and save literally hundreds of dollars. You're free to do what you want, and the most important thing is to get your attention span/mental health back, but try your best to not fall into the pit of spending a bunch of money to do so. (Plus, this way if you do give up, it's less monetarily embarassing.)