Stop the Scroll

News one can’t always use

I’m spending today gardening – away from the hubbub of America’s Fourth of July fireworks, socializing, and all sorts of programming. Instead, I’m quietly and joyfully tending to my portion of the Earth by planting new life in my backyard garden. And when sunset falls, I will be inside comforting my cat, who is afraid of fireworks.

Too many of us are addicted to the news, including me, who had ironically asserted a while ago that I am on a self-proclaimed news diet. I don’t seek out much of the news, but it seeks me out through my Facebook news feed and on other social media sites. And lately I find myself getting sucked into the plethora of news stories flooding social media.

We live in a scroll culture. I enjoy keeping in touch with friends on Facebook and other social media sites, but I’m annoyed by the plethora of news stories assaulting my news feeds.

Scrolling is addictive, and we are all vulnerable to get our next news fix from our chosen source(s). And I’ve realized that, for me, blindly scrolling is a colossal waste of time. I realize I can choose to stay informed while limiting my scrolling and how much news I ingest.

Here are my suggestions for slowing down the scroll, and thus improving our mental, spiritual, and emotional health:

• Decide how much reasonable time you will spend scrolling and stick to it. Set an alarm, and when it goes off, stop. At times, I used to scroll for hours. Now I set my timer for 15 minutes after I’ve engaged in a meaningful endeavor.

• Scrolling is a passive activity. Take charge of your time by doing something active and productive, such as exercising, writing, reading, gardening, playing board games, walking at the local botanical gardens, hiking, creating visual art, dancing, joining a pilates class, spending time with loved ones, going to museums, and so on. Not only does an activity distract you from social media, but it allows you to take care of your physical and mental health.

• Ignore notifications for a set amount of time; don’t allow them to disrupt your activities. For example, if you’re visiting a museum, ignore the notifications throughout your visit. When I create visual art, for example, I create first and check my notifications later.

• After you give yourself permission to read the news, focus on the headlines and a couple of key paragraphs at the beginning of the article. If you are watching a video, consider seeking out shorter videos so you can get your pulse on what’s happening without immersing yourself fully in the news stories. If you are drawn to a longer video, you could break it up into intervals. For example, you can watch the video for 15 minutes and then participate in an activity, and continue to watch it in 15-minute increments. Note that 15 minutes tends to be my time benchmark. Yours might vary. The point is to give yourself a breath of sanity.

I’ve not always been this disciplined, but I am improving. This week, for example, I limited my reading of news articles to about an hour total. I got a glimpse of the news of each day, thus staying informed, without burdening myself with the acts of scrolling, reading, and watching a plethora of videos. The “me” time wouldn’t allow for it.

As I stated earlier, I’m spending today tending to my backyard garden. Here are just two plants in my front yard, followed by a recent floral watercolor:

Purple coneflower

Burning hearts, also known as false sunflower

And coincidentally, this week when my alarm went off, I walked away from my notifications and I shut out all distractions. I created a watercolor based on a still life of a few red roses and their leaves. To date, this is the best watercolor I have done thus far, and it’s a still life, no less. I was so happy, I signed it.

And, for good measure, here’s a bonus picture of my cat Oliver.