So apparently there are people out there that will, instead of sleep, scroll through depressing ‘news’ on their phones. To such an extent, this practice has a name: doomscroll

      I was a bit shocked and amazed when I heard of this. In retrospect, shouldn’t have been, but I was. It’s a fallen world, such stupidity should be expected.

      Although, it fails multiple ‘best practices’ to even exist.

1      Bed is for sleeping. And maybe sex, but mostly sleeping. The bed can be used for various things (place to store clean laundry while folding it, for example), but the only thing you should be doing when in it is sleeping. Makes it a place for a function, which in turn makes for better nights sleep. At some point, the habit causes your body to get ready to sleep just by lying down on the bed. If you’ve gotten in the habit of reading, watching tv, doomscrolling… you’ll tend to do that instead of sleeping when you get in bed.

2      Phones are for phone calls. And maybe clocks, cameras, etc. But not for ‘social networking‘. You’ve always got your phone with you, so you’ll always be able (and therefor tempted) to pull it out. So there shouldn’t be anything installed on it that can be used to distract from… everything. Which means things like a clock, or the camera, are fine, as they are tools for a purpose, but not the sort of thing you’d pull out just because. And definitely not the sort of thing you’d stare at all through a conversation (even if you might want to glance at the clock). Social media (and to a lesser extent anything on the internet) is designed to distract. Which means you’ll be more focused on it then anything else, hence ignoring the world (and people) around you. As a side effect of not having such apps installed (or configured, if you can’t uninstall them), you can’t use them when you should be sleeping.

3      Search for good news, not bad. Bad news will find it’s way to you all on it’s own, double so if it’s ‘important’ bad news. You don’t need to spend any time and effort to go look for it. As the say goes, if it bleeds it leads. Reversely, good news is often harder to find. I like to think it’s more common, if less reported, but don’t have actual numbers for this (not that it matters here). Bad news does nothing good for you. It may inform, but it also may depress, anger, waste time, etc. Good news may inspire, encourage, or just plain make you happy. Which is better for you should be obvious. To use another saying, you are what you eat. If you are reading ‘bad’ news, don’t be surprised if, much like junk food, it negatively impacts your life.

      People use tools. Should you ever find you are being used by the tool, it’s time to stop. Or at least sit back and seriously reconsider your lifestyle.