i tend to endlessly check the news, especially on linkedin, where i can spend hours reading posts, and articles. it served me as a platform to learn new things, connect with professionals and keep me informed about changes, until the habit became a distraction when i spent too much time every day falling into this rabbit hole. i was so hooked on the dopamine rush that comes with every new headline. this secretly developed addiction gives me a temporary high that quickly fades, and leaves me craving more and more.
recently, i realized the issue and decided to make a change because it could be a roadblock to me achieving big and long-term goals. the hardest part is always the mind-shifting, which i found a panacea that worked well for me:
the topic or the issue in the news will be written in books, or recorded more permanently if it is really important.
there is no ending of new things coming up. aka no completion, so i can't say i completed the task of reading news.
so instead of endlessly scrolling through the news feed, i turned my head to reading books. but i didn't just stop reading news and checking linkedin posts completely. i'll open linkedin during a break as a reward to myself when i make progress on other big and more important projects.
i further asked myself why i had this addition. the answer came out as my tendency to control things. reading news made me feel like i'm connected to the world, knowing what's happening, thus i'm in control of my world, which is not true once it becomes an addiction. it made me feel more anxious than purely informed. one last thing i want to confess related to my "evil" self: it served me as a form of escapism that allowed me to avoid dealing with my own problems.
i'm still on my journey to solving the news addiction problem, and curious to hear what others think, and how you feel about people like me.
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