What to do instead of scrolling
Quiet Wall ·
Stopping scrolling is the easy part. The hard part is the gap it leaves. Twelve things to put there instead, starting with nothing at all.
Why stopping is not enough
Scrolling fills a gap: the queue, the bus, the minute before sleep, the ad break, the walk from one room to another. Take the phone away and the gap is still there. It is uncomfortable, and the phone comes back.
So the useful question is not how to stop. It is what goes in the gap instead.
Things to do instead
- nothing: look out of the window, or at a wall, until the urge passes
- walk around the block without headphones
- make a cup of tea and drink it while it is still hot
- write tomorrow's three things on paper
- stretch for two minutes
- read a chapter of a paper book
- call someone instead of watching what they posted
- tidy one drawer, and only one
- cook something that takes a while
- sit outside
- talk to whoever is in the room
- go to bed when you are tired, not when the feed runs out
The first one is on the list on purpose. Most of the others are still something to do. Doing nothing is the only one that leaves the gap as a gap.
What to do instead of doomscrolling
Doomscrolling is scrolling bad news, and it is harder to put down because every story feels like something you ought to know.
- pick one time a day to read the news, and one source to read it from
- turn off news notifications; a story that matters will still be there at that time
- notice that knowing an hour earlier has not yet changed what happened
Making the gap easier
Most scrolling happens in the same few places: the sofa, the bed, the bathroom, the bus. Make the phone harder to reach in those places and the habit has less to work with.
- charge the phone outside the bedroom
- turn off notifications for anything that is not a person
- move the feeds off the home screen, or off the phone
- use an app that adds friction: some put a pause in front of an app before it opens, some block apps on a schedule
The one we built
Quiet Wall puts the first item on that list on a timer. A reminder arrives, you tap once, the phone goes across the room, and you look at a wall until a sound brings you back. It does not replace the scroll with something else to look at. It replaces it with nothing, which is the one thing a feed cannot compete with.
How do I stop scrolling on my phone?
Decide what goes in the gap first, such as a walk, a page or nothing at all, and keep the phone out of reach in the places you usually scroll.
What can I do instead of doomscrolling?
Read the news once a day from one source, turn off news notifications, and fill the other gaps with something that is not a screen.
Read on
- How to do nothing, on purpose — Doing nothing is harder than it sounds. What it means to do it on purpose, where the idea comes from, and how to start with ten minutes and a wall.
- Dopamine menu: what it is, and a shorter one — A dopamine menu is a list of things to reach for instead of the phone. Where the idea comes from, how to write one, and the item most menus leave out.