A painful breakup from Screens…

Sagnik Roy

7 min readAug 3, 2021

How long can you wait for something ??…..Do you have the patience to wait just that little bit ???

Haven’t we been guilty of unnecessary purchases?

Why do we not think just that little bit before hitting that “ADD TO CART” button?

Do we start twitching and getting uncomfortable when we might not get a prompt reply from a friend on WhatsApp?

Do you think you are hooked onto 15-sec videos that have mushroomed in our social media apps?

Even after taking the conscious step of reading at least 10 pages, do we have that urge to check out Instagram, FB, etc?

If you have been answering “YES” to most of the questions, congratulations you are a normal human, having real-life problems to deal with.

Before we go any further, we have to understand that this “New Normal” way of living has nothing to do with these things mentioned.

All these things were already happening, just that we didn’t pay any heed to that, we were so busy leading our lives as we were made to believe.

On the contrary, with the new normal in place we were able to hit the pause button for a while and reflect on the choices we have been making with all the digital devices slowly eating into all the nooks and corners of our lives.

Is there really a problem?

A big fat “YES”, but this answer is rarely answered by us because essentially we are pretty bad at self-analysis. We always find ways to justify ourselves and pacify ourselves by saying “From Tomorrow, I will definitely do things that are not served on the screen”, and the cycle repeats.

We all know the distinction between active and passive, now teleport that same definition into the types of entertainment that we consume on a daily basis.

Passive entertainment is anything that we are not actively participating in i.e putting oneself into an auto-pilot mode and then expect to be fed with entertainment.

Some Examples include …..Want to guess …..The things that we used to get scolded for ages by our parents — TV, binge-watching shows, etc.

Active Entertainment entails anything that we create, be it a post, article, painting, singing a music cover, etc. Anything and everything that we might create ( doesn’t need to be good ) is active entertainment.

I was never addicted to screens, but lately, I have been hooked onto screens for Long, WTF happened to me ??

Interesting question , but before we start blaming ourselves entirely for our changes in the way we tend to spend our productive hours, we need magnifying glasses to look deeper.

The various tech companies actively hire psychology experts so that the web apps and the apps are designed in such a way that kinda hooks one up. New Features are being developed with the underlying base thinking that the feature should bind the user down to the apps.

If I may quote “Lord of the Rings”:

“One App to rule them all, One App to find them, One App to bring them all and in the Screens bind them. ”

One Prime example is that of TikTok — passive entertainment, where all the work is done by the algorithms and you are constantly bombarded by a plethora of short 10 sec videos and all you need to do is SWIPE …..it’s that simple

It’s the simplicity or should I say oversimplification that makes all the difference.

Simplification is good — all the technology of the world has one motto “LIFE SIMPLIFIED”, and then who doesn’t want a simple life. It’s only when we become so docile due to oversimplification, is when problems tend to knock at our doors.

Recently all the popular social media apps have their own shorts which provide the exact same services. Guess these apps really didn’t allow us to feel the void created by the banning of TikTok. All the social media ones, not downplaying the numerous advantages they bring in today’s day, but there are some truths about these apps that have been quite conveniently obscured.

But How!! How in the world do we get so attracted ??

Dopamine is a simple chemical compound (C8H11NO2 ) [ Chemistry Guys we need ya here ].

This simple chemical is the one that keeps us motivated and gives us a feeling of satisfaction.

Anything that gives us the feeling of ecstasy or elicits happy emotion is due to the fact that our brains have secreted dopamine into our systems.

Normal levels of dopamine are in minuscule amounts roughly 0–30pg/ml where “pg” refers to a picogram which is equal to 0.001 nanogram/ml, which in layman terms is negligible but turns out it has got a major role to play.

This delicate balance of dopamine in our systems is being exploited by our beloved companies, and we have little or no idea about this.

There have been multiple reports that confirm that these tech giants have been using our mental bugs to manipulate and lure us into these apps and keep us hooked.

Each app uses its own hooking techniques that give us a reason to feel the need of coming back to the app every few minutes.

I will link some of the reports for reference as well for some in-depth reading :

Isn’t it wrong to manipulate billions of people like that??

“YES” and “NO”. It all comes down to which side of the coin you are on.

Here I will try to cover both sides of the coin

Imagine you are the growth manager of a particular company, preferably a big tech company, and you are at a crossroads and you have to choose between an expressway and a city road riddled with potholes.

Most probably, you would choose the former over the latter to reach your targets faster and more efficiently. Why would you in your right frame of mind choose the latter?

Does it now seem Legit ??

Even now if it doesn’t seem legit, delve deeper — The growth manager has a life to live, has a family to feed, needs to have a career that pays him according to his/her qualifications.

Even if he/she says “NO” to the expressway, are things gonna change drastically …..perhaps NO?

What if 1000’s of growth managers quit, will that have an effect? ummmm….probably ….but not so sure, right?

You see, from this standpoint, it really doesn’t sound insidious.

Now, over to the other side of the coin

OMG!!….INSIDIOUS!!!…..PATHETIC!!!….how can they manipulate us so much ??

The simple answer is that we have allowed them to.

In a utopian world, it is morally wrong to manipulate someone towards something so addictive that it can have a detrimental effect.

But do we live in a utopian world? Certainly not. We really couldn’t be farther from a utopian world.

So, the responsibility comes on each individual’s shoulders to protect themselves.

How can we stop it …or when will it STOP??

The Tech giant fraternity will never stop, maybe it could be toned down a little bit, but

It will still be around — no matter what. Profit-making strategies are rarely scrapped, and these are strategies are just too invaluable to be scrapped off.

Can we completely stay beyond the reach of these Apps? Probably not. They have been intertwined with our lives, that going off the grid is just not possible.

We can just make a conscious decision of reducing our tendency — easier said than done.

We have just become so accustomed to using our devices in a certain way that changing that habit of ours will require us to make a conscious attempt and be patient.

Another important cog is that we should try to be content creators instead of consuming content incessantly. It could be anything from one’s list of hobbies and it need not be a good one. It is just the satisfaction that one gets when he/she creates something that is his/her makes all the difference.

I was to give my example — This Personal blog is my conscious step towards detaching myself from my phone as much as possible and creating something that I could call my “OWN”, and trust me that satisfaction is immense.