Find positive things instead. Focus on special interests.
I used to follow a sports team, so I would go visit that subreddit and a handful of dedicated fan sites. I would spend hours researching stats and getting into arguments with people. Looking at the college scene and mock drafts, looking at what contracts are expiring over the next couple seasons, making predictions. The tram got a bit problematic to root for though. I tried to get into other sports but just couldn’t find the juice.
Even off of devices, if I ever found myself getting into a downward thought spiral one of the ways I would stop is just naming all of the players on the roster, by position. Or naming all of their draft picks by round each year for the past few years.
Also videogames. Pkmnquiz.com is a tab that simply always stays open on my phone. I’m slowly getting to the point where I can list all of Gen 1 in dex order, and I can usually get most of gen’s 2 and 5 (out of order) without any help. One day I hope to be able to get all generations in order.
It could be considering possibilities for Zelda timelines or naming all of the Civ 6 leaders. Ranking all the Ratchet and Clank games by how much I enjoyed them. Thinking of new builds in an RPG. Listing all the characters in a book.
Now, if we are talking about how to use a smartphone productively, I’ve found Nebula really helped me. A lot of creators I already enjoyed were on there, and I was able to find more that I hadn’t heard about that are pretty cool too. The hard part is still managing how much doom-related content I watch, but I find it’s easier to choose not to watch a 30 minute video essay on things that are dark and terrible than it is to scroll past dozens of articles or short-form videos.
Find positive things instead. Focus on special interests.
I used to follow a sports team, so I would go visit that subreddit and a handful of dedicated fan sites. I would spend hours researching stats and getting into arguments with people. Looking at the college scene and mock drafts, looking at what contracts are expiring over the next couple seasons, making predictions. The tram got a bit problematic to root for though. I tried to get into other sports but just couldn’t find the juice.
Even off of devices, if I ever found myself getting into a downward thought spiral one of the ways I would stop is just naming all of the players on the roster, by position. Or naming all of their draft picks by round each year for the past few years.
Also videogames. Pkmnquiz.com is a tab that simply always stays open on my phone. I’m slowly getting to the point where I can list all of Gen 1 in dex order, and I can usually get most of gen’s 2 and 5 (out of order) without any help. One day I hope to be able to get all generations in order.
It could be considering possibilities for Zelda timelines or naming all of the Civ 6 leaders. Ranking all the Ratchet and Clank games by how much I enjoyed them. Thinking of new builds in an RPG. Listing all the characters in a book.
Now, if we are talking about how to use a smartphone productively, I’ve found Nebula really helped me. A lot of creators I already enjoyed were on there, and I was able to find more that I hadn’t heard about that are pretty cool too. The hard part is still managing how much doom-related content I watch, but I find it’s easier to choose not to watch a 30 minute video essay on things that are dark and terrible than it is to scroll past dozens of articles or short-form videos.