How I’m Reducing Screen Time, Reclaiming My Attention & Rediscovering Offline Hobbies
If you read that title and thought I CANNOT believe this chick is still talking about being on her phone less…me either.
A couple of years ago, I was drafting social media content weeks in advance, creating posts for brands, and was stuck thinking that this intense use of social media was the only way to grow my business. Think influencer lite. Using social media was becoming a problem for me. My mental health was suffering because of how connected I thought I had to be to socials “for my business.” As soon as I started to pull away from that demand, wouldn’t ya know I felt better!
And now, I’m seeking out ways to be on my phone less every day.
I recognize that I’m sharing this with you through Substack… on the internet. The irony is not lost on me. I’m not ready to go fully off the grid and abandon technology or social media just yet. Access to technology and the internet can save lives. But I desperately want to return to a time when my phone was a tool that enhanced my life, not ran it.
And I’m not alone in that desperation. I’ve seen posts all over Substack and YouTube about 2026 being the year of analog or why they started using an iPod again. Social media use is actually declining worldwide. With AI slop being slung across every app, users are finding it harder to actually use social media for…social connection.
Sales of dumphones are increasing amongst the younger generations who are already fatigued by the constant reliance on a phone. So it’s not just sad millennials like myself harkening back to a time of yore. People who didn’t grow up with flip phones and iPods are seeking them out. Internet fatigue is here. We’re tired of endless notifications, FB arguments over misinformation, and ads for things we don’t need. People want their attention and their time back. And so do I. It’s a muscle that needs to be retrained. I’m tired of feeling like I can’t settle into one activity at a time.
We’re so tied to whatever is happening in the little box in our hands that we’re missing chances for connection that are right in front of us. The pressure to always be available means our attention is always at least a little diverted. It’s also soooooo normal to be mid convo with someone and have them look down at a notification. I want to change how we use our phones socially. Social media is addictive. It’s designed to be that way. A quick hit of dopamine that you keep coming back for. We’re technically more connected than we’ve ever been, but we’re also lonelier than ever.
It feels trite to keep mentioning how bad excessive screen use is. But too many of us are shrugging off the warnings as something to deal with later. Even if you think it doesn’t, those quick scrolls add up. Studies continue to show that social media and screens are destroying our mental health in myriad ways:
Increased incidence of mental health
Increased risk of addiction
Slowed learning
Increased risk of premature cognitive decline
Natalie Brite, of DoGoodBiz Studio, wrote a great piece on taking control of our attention, “We weren’t built for a machine that delivers a constant drip feed of everything- news, outrage, updates, opinions, memes, tragedies, wins, losses, trends, breaking stories, and breaking hearts- compressed into the same endless scroll. Smartphones didn’t just arrive in our lives. They reorganized them.” If you’re also looking to take back control of how we organize our lives, here are some things that have helped me so far:
Delete a bunch of apps from your phone
I’m a millennial, so I remember getting home after school and being excited to log on to the internet and see who I could chat with. Remember that thrill!? I’m here to tell you that it can be yours again! In the last few months, I’ve deleted almost all social media apps from my phone. When I want to check Facebook, I have to go to my computer and be more intentional with my time. After that, I found myself using other random apps like Poshmark or Etsy for the mindless scrolling moments. While those are arguably a bit better than Facebook, it was still mindless scrolling. So I deleted those off my phone too! Set aside some time to go through your phone and trash any apps you want to use more intentionally on another device.
Download a screen management app
A friend of mine recommended the Opal app to help with screen time management. If your phone is your only internet device, an app can be a helpful boundary with social media and your screen in general. Or if, like me, you still find yourself anxiously checking apps like Gmail or Substack to avoid focusing on a task. It was super easy to set up on my phone. You can block your access to certain apps based on the time of day.
Being blocked by an app has forced me to pause and think about WHY I picked up my phone in the first place. When you notice yourself picking up your phone absent-mindedly, ask yourself why. We are often trying to avoid a task or numb out when we start mindlessly scrolling. Be honest with yourself, and decide if there’s a better use of the moment. Also, be kind to yourself; we’ve been socially taught this behavior. It takes work to unwind it.
Follow the no double-screen rule
How often have you found yourself watching something on TV or a laptop while ALSO scrolling your phone? I know I have, and every time I realize I’m not fully paying attention to either screen. As Ron Swanson of Parks and Rec would say, “never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.” It’s time to get our attention spans back! I know this might be hard to read…….but you cannot have a full present conversation and be looking at your phone. Our brains aren’t wired for it. Despite my years of trying, it turns out you can’t write and watch a YouTube video at the same time.
Quick reminder - boredom is good! Our brains aren’t always meant to be occupied and inundated with input. Have you ever noticed you do some of your best thinking in the shower? It’s probably because it’s the only time you’re really quiet. Drive with no music one morning. Eat in silence. Give your brain a lil break from all the stimulation. Or if you’re standing in line at the grocery store, just stand there. Notice what’s around you instead of sinking into your screen.
Rebuild your offline life
We’ve normalized housing EVERY SINGLE THING in our phones, and it’s a problem. The combination of internet fatigue, social media overwhelm, and AI-made music is pushing folks back to physical media more and more. If you use your phone frequently, for one day, make a list of all the reasons you used it.
Once I started paying attention to why I opened my phone throughout the day, I realized some of the reasons could be eliminated, like looking on Pinterest for the same recipe I’ve cooked five times. For years, that app has served as a main place for storing recipes - I’m starting to write down recipes and create my own lil recipe book.
Another common reason I reach for my phone is to play music - through Qobuz because, as we established, boooooo Spotify! But I’ve been slowly re-growing my CD collection. Playing a CD or a record means not only do you listen to the whole album, but you also don’t have to pick up your phone!
These might seem like small examples, but having fewer reasons to HAVE to go on your phone means lessening the chance you get sucked into the vortex and scroll other places.
An app like Opal is going to tell you how much time you’re on your phone - and it might not be pretty. The cool thing is thinking about all the time you regain when you slowly disconnect from it. Hopefully, this is the part where you get to find or rediscover an offline hobby. Remember how I said dumbphones are trending among younger folks? Adjacent to that trend is the analog bag. Trend speak for saying, what do we do when we don’t have a phone in our hand?
Hobbies are good for us. Creating for the sake of creating helps me feel like a human, and not a cog in the capitalist machine. Lately, I’ve really enjoyed coloring while listening to podcasts or music, reading, and zine-making! Major tease here, but I have some exciting new things coming in 2026 that may or may not include a zine mail club, more on that next year. :)
I love this list of hobby ideas below from Martina from As Of Late. Pro-tip: bring something to do with you (that isn’t your phone) when you leave the house! I love my crossword puzzle app, but I recently started buying crossword puzzle books again. When I’m in the waiting room for therapy, I’ve been reading or doing puzzles, again not getting sucked into something on my phone.
I’m not sharing this from a place of perfection. I certainly don’t have it all figured out. I watch more YouTube than I wish I did. I anxiously check my email too much. And I NEED to get off my screen earlier in the evening. I know to live more mindfully, and presently I’ve gotta be on that little cube less. I hope we look back at this time and say, damn remember that lil phone addiction era we were all in? That was crazy, glad we chilled on that!
Can you relate? Have you been struggling with addiction to your phone? What hobbies do you have or do you want to cultivate? Let’s hear it! Head to my Substack to share your thoughts.
