Single, Home, and Scrolling? Try a Digital Evening Detox, It Helps | #62

Speaker A: 00:00:02

Have you ever come home after a long day, picked up your phone and suddenly realized two or three hours have gone by?

Hi, welcome back to All About Being Single.

Or welcome if you're new here.

I'm your host, Wioleta.

I'm very excited that you're here.

Today's episode is going to be a short one.

Just some thoughts that I had recently is I think that some.

So many of us single people, well, mainly those of us who live at home by ourselves, we come home to ourselves.

So I think that we're probably on our phones a lot more than other people or if not on our phones, maybe watching tv, whatever the case might be.

I don't really necessarily watch TV a lot per se, although I do watch a lot of YouTube.

So I guess that's my TV.

And while some of it is self help related too.

But like, I know I'm the kind of person where like once I come back home from work, I'm exhausted.

I.

And I just will like go on Reddit and like read stuff and comment sometimes and just, just be on my phone because there's not a person that I have plans with.

Being 39, I still have a very good social life and I do go out enough, honestly, probably too much even for my likes.

I would prefer to just be cuddled up in.

Cuddled up on the couch more often than not with somebody else.

And currently I'm usually just cuddled up on the couch with my cat or he's right across the couch from me because he likes, he's definitely a Velcro cat, so he definitely likes being around me.

And yeah, so like, because I like to just be at home pretty much Monday through Friday and especially Fridays after like a full work of.

After full week of working.

I just, yeah, I just like to be at home.

I do do my walks after work as long as it's not like super dark out.

And unfortunately now it's getting dark out.

But yeah, I just think that so many of us.

And again, if you're single and you live at home and you're also a little bit, you know, on the middle of the road age, you know, I won't say middle age, but yeah, I just think that I don't want to go out all the time.

I know I definitely don't want to go out all the time and I like to just relax because I am so busy with so many things that I'm doing that like most of my evenings are spent at home sitting on the couch and just scrolling and I, I Know, I'm not the only one because yeah, think about it, you know, it's like you get home, you grab something to eat, you maybe open Instagram, maybe scroll through TikTok, maybe watch a few YouTube videos, maybe turn on Netflix and.

And just before you know it, I think the entire evening can just be gone.

And there's not necessarily anything wrong with it.

I just.

And some of it is enjoyable, but I think sometimes it can get into that weird space where like, yeah, I didn't do anything else but just literally sit on my phone for so many hours, like.

Cause those hours can go by so fast.

And I think sometimes it's not even really about entertaining ourselves anymore.

It could just be distracting ourselves.

You know, whether it be distracting ourselves from like feeling of loneliness or just distracting ourselves from just how tired we are from like capitalism and just working all the time from how tired we are of whatever.

Whatever it might be.

You know.

But yeah, I think there's just that other layer to this for single people.

For us, sometimes we're, especially if we're on social media, then we're also consuming so much content about relationships and dating and maybe seeing weddings and vacations and fitness and beauty and other people's seemingly perfect lives that we end up comparing our reality to then as well.

And you know, sometimes we can just spend hours watching other people live their lives while neglecting to really create experiences for ourselves and live our own lives.

And so I just think it's something worth thinking about.

And maybe that's not you.

And if that's not you, fantastic.

But I know that's definitely been me.

So the glow up this week is just going to be a little challenge.

So try to reclaim some of your alone time.

So maybe get an app that blocks some apps on your phone.

You know, maybe just, just do it for the evenings of this week, that's all.

You know, you don't have to do it for much longer.

You know, you can probably get like a seven day trial, cancel it the day.

Well, even the evening that you get it, you know, because usually you can cancel and still use it throughout that trial.

Or maybe you get one of those like phone boxes which I call phone coffins that you can put your phone into and just lock it in there for a few hours.

Evening.

And obviously if you work nights, you know, you do this maybe in the beginning of your day or well, still at the.

Well, you know what I'm saying, still at the end of your day, but maybe at a different time, not an evening.

But what I'm trying to say is just try doing something else for a few days, even if it's not the full five or seven days this week.

Maybe do it for one day, maybe do it for three days.

Whatever you think you can accomplish, but kind of see the difference and maybe even how you feel.

Because I, I both have a phone coffin and I have apps that block usage of like Instagram and YouTube and all Reddit, all of those things during the day.

Because I know if I start off my day, especially in the morning, being on those apps, then my whole day is just.

I just don't feel as good and I'm not as productive and I like being productive.

I have shit to do and I also want to feel good.

I want to feel good in this life.

So, yeah, that's it.

Just try to stay away from your phone or just screens in general for a little bit longer this week.

That's your glow up.

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And as always, they come out on Tuesdays.

And also, as always, always remember, even if we're late, we're right on time.

Thanks so much for listening and I will talk to you next Tuesday.

Sam.