The Endless Cycle of Scrolling

We’re stuck in a cycle of scrolling. Our thumbs are used to the motion of swiping down or up, as our mind blankly stares at the screen in front of us. Each passing second turns into minutes and eventually hours. Then, when we look up to check the time, the whole day will have already passed us by. 

If each passing scroll was like an elevator, how far down would each of us go? I know for me, it’s to the point of no return. Years ago, we wondered if we could finally achieve advanced technology to make our lives easier; however, this isn’t the future we were so excited for. Social media has had the biggest impact on us for a long time, and it is continuing to grow in popularity. Many say it is also a trap to force our minds into a trance where it seems like it is the only way out of problems. Yes, it’s completely alright to spend some time talking and interacting with people online, but one important concept that is hard for teenagers to grasp is control and limitations. 

To be exact, our devices are just another way to escape reality. With so much going on in our everyday lives, we end up not taking in the present moment.

Instead of taking on real life problems, spending time outside, and finding new hobbies, the endless cycle of scrolling wraps its way into our lives. Having this problem can deduct so many years off our lives.

Social media platforms use algorithms to allow your favourite people, posts, and videos to pop up more often because they pique your interest. Similarly, it is like winning a game. By doing the repeated movement of swiping until finding a good video, it releases dopamine that makes your brain happy, continuing to scroll and find similar videos. It further pushes you to stay on the app to find similar attractions. The social media algorithms use this phenomenon to exploit and encourage you to keep going. Not long after, you’re trapped in the centre of social media addiction. 

However, it isn’t even just the endless scrolling. It’s the same for messages from friends. The emptiness that is commonly felt in teens when they set their phone down becomes a trigger to open up the app once again to fill that sense of nothing. Those subconscious triggers in your mind are often associated with a negative emotion such as boredom or depression, forcing you to dive into the app as a temporary relief. Moreover, by not being on the platform, our brains would keep sending signals telling us about the things we would be missing out on without opening it. This external trigger pushes us to open it, feeling achieved. The mindless recurring actions end up becoming an addiction. This exploitation of capturing triggers, engaging rewards, and recurring actions are the reasons why teenagers are trapped in this cycle. 

I was trapped in this cycle as well. Every day when I woke up, I reached out for my phone to check my notifications, and then watch some videos. Depending on the day, it took up my whole morning up until noontime. Most people can notice the time passing by them while doing so, but the most terrifying part is when they don’t. One moment, it’s early in the morning, and the next, three hours may already have gone by. The worst part about being stuck in the endless wonders of social media is the loss of the present moment. For example, while being on my phone for hours, I lose track of what’s going on around me. It turns out that I have ignored the responsibilities of my everyday life as well as wasted a lot of precious time during the day. 

Instead of taking care of my pet and spending time with my family, I trapped myself in an isolated box with my phone, fearing the loss of contact with this addictive device. However, whenever I got to school or anywhere around the community, I found myself seeing similarities. So many people had their phones out, texting, calling, and playing games on it while they walked, paused, and multitasked. Seeing so many people who looked unaware of their surroundings and are so deeply involved with phones hurt me. I was one of them, and it needed to change. At that point, it was the social media networks taking control of us, and not us taking control of our time on our devices. 

In spite of all that, I was determined to give my life a change. I don’t want to spend hours on end wasting my life away on my device anymore, scrolling and scrolling. There are plenty of reasons I use social media. Every one of them is an excuse to escape. For example, one of the reasons why I spend hours on end scrolling through social media is because of procrastination.

It is a way to push my responsibilities and workload back. To me, it is a way to avoid the problem. However, this causes more stress and a delay in schedule. As I stay on social media, the time slowly ticks away as I negatively anticipate the inevitable work in the future.

One way I solved this was by doing my work right away. It started off slow. I had been swiping on my phone for a long while before my mind wandered to the homework waiting for me. I told myself that I would turn off my phone in ten minutes. The important part comes in. Instead of telling myself that every time the ten minutes came up, I would follow my own words, turning it off and getting to work straight away. 

Another reason why many people go on social media is the feeling of loneliness. The longing feeling of wanting to interact with others can cause many teenagers to compare and find an escape to their aching need to interact. Because of wanting to have a sense of connection, we reach for social media to communicate with one another without any geographic barriers. The longing temptation of craving for attention and communication can hurt us in the long term. A way for this to be limited is spending more time outside and putting away your phone. For example, instead of scrolling and comparing lives with other people and friends, using that time to do entertaining activities instead benefits being in the present moment. There’s no need to post everything on the internet, capturing photos and moments for social media. Change your mindset so that each memory captured is stored for you. Live and experience the present without focusing on your performance to satisfy the high demands of social media. 

To sum up, social media addiction is a serious mental health issue that impacts millions of teenagers worldwide. It captures us in an endless loop that forces us with triggers and rewards to stay on the app. As a victim of this addiction, it gave me many problems that heavily affected my everyday life. Although I was stuck in that repeated cycle, I’m trying my best to escape by ending the loop of procrastination and focusing more on the present around me. As experts from Pew Research Center said, “Social media is the new normal, but it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.” It’s time to stop treating this like it is a light problem, and find a way to break the loop.