30-day no social media challenge
Day 2-A shit to remember
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been intrigued by human behavior. Observing our habits and mannerisms. Trying to understand why we do what we do and over time I’ve come to realize how similar we all are. Every day, like most of us, I walk into a bathroom, drop my pants, and take a nice, satisfying, shit. It’s said that no matter who you are, a wealthy businessman, or a simple street vendor, when we drop those pants, we are one and the same. And up until the last decade, it was as simple as that. Now, however, most of us have a small, square-shaped companion that keeps us company while doing our business. Flicking and scrolling through endless content. We live in a time where taking a dump without your phone is considered “boring”. And for the longest time now, I have been one of those people.
Like every other morning, I woke up, went into the bathroom, dropped my pants, sat on the toilet, and took out my phone. Almost instinctively, I went to where my Instagram was supposed to be, only to find a blank space. Quickly realizing I had nothing to do while on the toilet. Right then It dawned on me, how many times throughout the day do I just whip out my phone when I THINK I’m bored? Traveling on public transport, waiting for a friend, riding down an elevator with strangers, walking on the road, and even when we watch Netflix, we are on our phones. We are so addicted to them that simple, routine events in our lives become boring without it. I found myself being bombarded with information constantly, to the point where it just became numb. Never letting my mind rest. Rarely allowing it to process information properly.
Throughout the day I found myself having more and more time for myself. Limited content to flick through. Looking up instead of always looking down at my screen. And I am not to going lie, it feels strange. I’ve picked up my phone at least a dozen times today, purely out of muscle memory, only to realize there was nothing for me to look at. If anything, I feel more anxious now, more disconnected then before. But remember, the idea is to reconnect by disconnecting, and I am still in the disconnecting phase.
So, there I was, with zero entertainment, just me and my shit. And for the next 28 mornings, that’s how it was going to be, how nature intended it to be. Me and my shit. No more, no less.
Ciao for now,
Papanickels
