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Scrolling Is Ruining Your Ability to Think (here’s what I do instead) — Transcript

by Veronika Mark · 3,102 words · 442 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You used to be able to read a book for
0:01an hour, and now you can't even get
0:03through one paragraph without checking
0:05your phone. You used to have actual
0:07thoughts, your own thoughts, and now it
0:09feels like half of what comes out of
0:11your mouth is something that you saw on
0:13a reel 3 days ago. If this sounds
0:16familiar, this video is for you because
0:18scrolling is actually doing something
0:21super dangerous to our ability to think.
0:24And I want to walk you through what's
0:25actually happening, and then I'm going
0:27to share five things I do instead that
0:29have completely changed how my brain
0:31feels. If you're new here, welcome. My
0:33name is Veronica, and on this channel I
0:35talk a lot about nervous system
0:37regulation, your attention, your focus,
0:40and dopamine. I actually have a free
0:42guide called Your Nervous System Reset
0:44that pairs really well with today's
0:46video. If you want to check it out, I'll
0:48leave the link in the description. All
0:49right, so let's begin with part one and
0:51talk about what's actually happening to
0:54your brain, why it feels like your
0:56attention span is gone, and you can't
0:58think of anything original anymore. The
1:00answer is the network that produces
1:03original thinking is literally offline.
1:06There's a part of your brain called the
1:07default mode network, and this is the
1:10part that comes online when you're not
1:12doing anything, when you're staring out
1:14a window, when you're enjoying your
1:16morning coffee without being on your
1:18phone, when you're walking somewhere and
1:21just looking around, taking in all the
1:23nature. I know it sounds like the boring
1:26part of the brain, but it's actually
1:27really important because that's where
1:30original thinking happens. And the catch
1:32is this network only turns on when
1:35you're unstimmulated, when you're not
1:37using social media, when you're not
1:40using your phone. The second you try to
1:42fill every single gap with input, it
1:45just shuts off. So, if you fill every
1:47single quiet moment of your day with
1:50scrolling, this network never gets to
1:53come online. And this network is often
1:55offline for so many of us because our
1:58dopamine has been recalibrated. There's
2:01this amazing book called Dopamine Nation
2:03by Dr. Anna Lembke, and I highly
2:06recommend this book to all of you guys.
2:09In the book, Dr. Anna Lembke describes
2:12how modern life messes with our reward
2:14system, with our dopamine. And her
2:17research shows that if you flood your
2:19brain with constant high dopamine
2:21inputs, like scrolling social media,
2:24sugar, anything that gives you a quick
2:26hit, your brain tries to compensate, and
2:29the result is that your baseline drops
2:31below the level that you started with.
2:34Things that used to feel good in the
2:36past, like a slow walk in your
2:39neighborhood, or a conversation with a
2:42friend where no one is getting
2:44distracted by their phones, all of that
2:46now feels flat because something is
2:50missing. Quick dopamine hits are
2:52missing. And anything that requires
2:55friction to be interesting and
2:56rewarding, like reading this full book,
3:00or learning a new skill, all of that
3:03starts to feel unbearable. Not because
3:06it actually is, but because your brain
3:08has been recalibrated. And those small,
3:11simple things just don't give you the
3:13same hit. They're not as interesting
3:15anymore. And they also require so much
3:19friction to get started and to continue,
3:21like scrolling on TikTok is so much
3:24easier than reading this full book. It
3:26requires hours and hours of
3:29concentration,
3:30and you know, sitting down and actually
3:33focusing on the words, and understanding
3:36all of the main lessons. And the most
3:38important thing I learned from this book
3:40is that it actually takes around 4 weeks
3:43of pulling back from all of those high
3:46dopamine activities to reset your
3:48baseline. Not 3 days, not a weekend
3:51dopamine detox. Four weeks. And most
3:55people who try to cut back actually give
3:57up on day five, right when it's about to
4:00actually start feeling better. So, if
4:02you're trying to use your phone less
4:03right now, and at the beginning it feels
4:06weird, boring, unusual, you probably
4:09have to wait four weeks to actually
4:12notice a significant improvement. Also,
4:14in the past what I would often say is
4:16that when I am scrolling, I am resting.
4:20It's how I am rewarding myself for a day
4:24of, you know, hard work, doing
4:26something, working, and so now I just
4:28want to scroll for an hour. But now, I
4:31realize that in my case, and I think
4:33that's the case for most people,
4:35scrolling isn't resting. It's actually
4:37keeping you in freeze. You open the app,
4:40you zone out for an hour, and you tell
4:43yourself that you're decompressing. But
4:45somehow, you get up feeling worse than
4:48when you started. You feel heavier, you
4:50feel numb, you feel so much more tired
4:54than in the very beginning. And I want
4:56to show you guys this framework in
4:57neuroscience called the polyvagal
4:59theory. It was developed by Dr. Stephen
5:02Porges, and it basically says that your
5:04nervous system has three states. One,
5:07two, three. There is safety right here,
5:09when you're feeling calm, alert,
5:11present. There is fight or flight, when
5:13you're feeling anxious, activated, and
5:16tense. And there is freeze, when your
5:19body feels so overwhelmed that it just
5:22shuts down. You go numb, you check out,
5:25and time disappears. And that's exactly
5:27how I feel when I scroll on social media
5:31for hours and hours. Rest, good quality
5:34rest that actually makes you feel
5:36restful, can only happen in this safety
5:40zone. But scrolling doesn't put you in
5:42safety. Depending on how you feel, it
5:44can either put you in fight or flight,
5:47it can make you feel very angry, or in
5:49freeze. This is something that happens
5:51to me all the time. And so, if
5:53[clears throat] we connect it back to
5:55your default mode network, that part of
5:57your brain can only turn on when you're
6:00in safety. Your original creative
6:02thinking happens when this network is
6:04online. Obviously, not when you're in
6:07freeze. And so, when I learned all of
6:09that, that's how I started noticing
6:11that, okay, when I scroll, I feel like
6:14I'm in freeze. And so, that prevents me
6:17from truly resting, and that also
6:19prevents me from thinking clearly, from
6:23having all of those original creative
6:25thoughts. It's a double loss. You don't
6:27get the rest you came for, and you don't
6:29get your thoughts back, either. Now, in
6:32part two, let's talk about what I do
6:34instead to actually teach myself to
6:37think again. The first thing I do is I
6:39read out loud. When you read silently,
6:42especially after years of scrolling,
6:44your eyes just skim. You're reading a
6:47book the same way you're reading the
6:49comments on Tik Tok. Fast, surface
6:52level, looking for the next thing. But,
6:54I noticed for myself that when I read
6:56out loud, that actually allows me to
6:58slow down. So, I have two strategies.
7:01The first one is reading out loud, and
7:03the second one is reading while
7:05listening to the audiobook, because this
7:07strategy works really great for me, as
7:09well. Hearing my own voice, or maybe an
7:12audiobook, is very effective for me,
7:14because my brain registers that very
7:17differently from passive reading. And it
7:20also helps me take my focus back. If I
7:22feel like, okay, right now, I'm
7:23distracted, that is okay. Because again,
7:26in the past, I always felt like it was
7:29so easy for me to read like 50 pages,
7:32100 pages. It was so easy. But, now,
7:36sometimes, I feel like my attention and
7:39my focus are really struggling, and I
7:42need something to actually help me come
7:45back to the present moment. So, I either
7:48start reading out loud or I just listen
7:51to an audiobook while reading at the
7:53same time. The second thing I do is I
7:55keep something in my hands. So, it can
7:58be something super simple like I think I
8:00told you guys in one of my previous
8:02videos that I always have a notebook on
8:06my desk. It's always open
8:09just like this. So, that if I have an
8:11idea, I want to doodle something, I can
8:13always use my notebook instead of
8:16picking up my phone. Because the thing
8:18is for many of us, the action of picking
8:21up our phones is already a habit. You
8:24know, just like holding your phone,
8:26picking it up every 3 minutes, it's a
8:29habit. And so, instead of just okay, now
8:32I'm not going to do anything, I'm not
8:34going to hold anything in my hands,
8:36that's often pretty hard. So, what I
8:38propose instead is replacing it with
8:41something else. So, on my desk, I have
8:44my notebook. I also have my lip balms
8:48that I really like to play with because
8:50they have these cute little attachments
8:52that allow me to hook them onto my bag.
8:56But usually, I just keep them on my
8:57desk. And so, if I feel like I want to
9:00just, you know, touch something, hold
9:02something in my hands, I do that. Some
9:05other ideas that I can give you guys
9:07here is you can use a Rubik's Cube or
9:11maybe like a fidget toy. I think they're
9:13called worry beads. Like something that
9:16you can hold in your hands because the
9:18idea here is not to tell you that okay,
9:21now you don't need to, you know, hold
9:24anything, just like sit like this all
9:27day, and that's it. All of these things
9:30are helping you to need something
9:33different, something other than your
9:35phone. Because a huge part of why we
9:37even scroll is in the content, it's the
9:40motion. It's having something in your
9:43hands. So, replacing it with something
9:46low stakes and something fun is always
9:49better. The next thing I do is I walk
9:51without anything in my ears. This one
9:54has honestly been the hardest for me to
9:56even start because in the past I was a
9:59huge productivity freak, a big
10:01perfectionist, and so I always wanted to
10:04optimize absolutely everything. Every
10:06single hour of my time, I was always
10:09listening to everything in 2x speed, and
10:12you know, every quiet moment I wanted to
10:15habit stack things. So, when I was
10:17walking somewhere, I was always
10:18listening to a podcast because I always
10:20wanted to learn new things. And I still
10:23do. But now, I also understand the
10:25importance of the default mode network
10:27because I even noticed it for myself.
10:30When I'm always listening to something,
10:32when I'm filling every quiet moment with
10:34input, I feel more anxious. Like right
10:37before I fall asleep, that's the time
10:40all of those thoughts actually pop up,
10:42and I'm like,
10:43"Okay, let's think now." And now, what I
10:46do instead is I create those moments
10:48during the day for my brain to be
10:51creative and to think and to process
10:54things. And I think in general, I can
10:56apply this habit to physical activities
10:59that you can practice without
11:01technology. Because you guys know I do
11:03yoga, and there are so many different
11:06ways I can practice yoga. Like I can do
11:08it at home, I can use my phone to watch
11:12like a video on YouTube and just
11:13practice this way, or I can go outside.
11:17I can practice yoga outside in a park,
11:20or maybe I can go to a yoga studio and
11:22be surrounded by people who are doing
11:25the exact same thing, who are all
11:27working towards the same goal, and we're
11:31all not using our phones, and that just
11:34feels so nice, you know, to be
11:37completely disconnected from the world
11:40for at least 60 90 minutes. Habit number
11:43four that I have implemented recently is
11:46I have one slow thing every single day
11:49that I refuse to optimize. It started
11:51with something super small and super
11:53simple like enjoying my morning matcha
11:56without my phone, without absolutely
11:58anything. Because it usually takes me
12:01around 5 to 10 minutes to drink this,
12:03and then I looked at other things that I
12:05did every single day that I can subtract
12:08my phone from. For example, in the past,
12:11every time I would go take a shower, I
12:13would always listen to a podcast. Now, I
12:16do it sometimes, but not every single
12:19time because I want to give my brain
12:21some time to actually relax and think
12:25freely. What all of this does is it
12:28teaches
12:29system that being unstimulated isn't
12:32dangerous, that it's actually very safe.
12:34It might feel very new and very weird,
12:37and usually, you know, in those quiet
12:39moments, we start to ruminate on things,
12:42we get a lot of thoughts because we
12:44never have those moments of quiet. We're
12:48so used to picking up our phones the
12:51moment we feel bored. Here, I also want
12:54to add one really important thing. I
12:56don't want you guys to experience this
12:58all or nothing thinking. Like now, you
13:00can never use your phone when you're
13:02cooking something, let's say. So,
13:04basically, you can never habit stack.
13:06That's not what I'm trying to
13:07communicate. What I'm trying to say is
13:10sometimes it's nice to just be focused
13:12on one thing like cooking or cleaning or
13:16taking a shower. And of course,
13:18sometimes you can still, you know, go
13:20outside and take a walk while listening
13:22to music. That's still totally okay. The
13:25point is, create more moments during the
13:28day when you can feel bored because that
13:31is when your mind can actually wander
13:34and create all of those beautiful
13:36original thoughts. All right, and
13:37finally, habit number five that I
13:39started doing is I'm slowly replacing my
13:42phone with single-use objects. Our
13:45phones feel impossible to put down, not
13:48just because the apps are so addictive.
13:51It's also because our phones literally
13:53do everything. Your phone is your alarm
13:56clock, your camera, your journal, your
13:58book, your map, your music, your workout
14:01videos, the way you talk to your mom,
14:03your grocery list, your calculator, your
14:05calendar, your watch. You get the point.
14:08And yes, it's really great that all of
14:10this human progress has allowed us to
14:12have all of those things in just one
14:15device. Like, I'm really grateful for
14:16that. But at the same time, we have to
14:18recognize that sometimes when all you
14:21want to do is set an alarm, the next
14:24moment you realize that you're on TikTok
14:26scrolling because your phone literally
14:29has all of these apps. And so, that's
14:31why now I'm slowly trying to add those
14:33single-use objects back into my life.
14:36Like, having a physical alarm clock next
14:39to my bed because now I don't really
14:42have an excuse, right? Like, why do I
14:44need to have my phone next to me when I
14:46sleep? Okay, for an alarm, but I have a
14:49physical alarm clock. So, now I can just
14:51leave my phone in here.
14:54Done. I have a real journal that I use
14:56and I write by hand. So, I don't need my
14:59phone. And what I have been noticing for
15:01myself is that the more single-use
15:04objects I have in my home that can
15:07actually replace my phone, that makes my
15:10phone less magnetic. Like, I'm starting
15:13to use it less and less, and I'm
15:15actually starting to lose the habit of,
15:18you know, reaching for my phone every
15:20single time to set an alarm or to
15:23journal or to read a book because I
15:26don't really use my phone for that
15:28anymore. All right, and finally in part
15:30four, I actually want to talk about what
15:32you get back. What actually comes back
15:35when you start to put your phone down?
15:37The obvious thing is, yes, you get your
15:39attention back. You start to feel more
15:41regulated. You're more patient. You're
15:44more present in conversations. You can
15:46finish a book. You can sit through a
15:47movie. All of that is true and it's so
15:50amazing. But the thing that I'm also
15:52noticing right now that's been happening
15:55to me is sensory awakening. What I mean
15:58by that is, for example, when I buy
16:01flowers for my house, now every time I
16:05pass by the flowers, I want to smell
16:07them. I want to touch them. If I see
16:10like a very interesting-looking fabric,
16:12I immediately want to touch it. Like I
16:14feel like now I want to touch absolutely
16:16everything. The leaves of the trees
16:18outside, the texture of a stone. And
16:21this is honestly pretty new to me. And I
16:23think the reason why it's happening is
16:24because when you're scrolling, you're
16:27not really noticing anything in your
16:28physical environment. Let alone, you
16:31don't really get the thoughts of, "Hmm,
16:34I wonder what it feels like if I touch
16:35it." And also in the past, my brain
16:37didn't have any of the space to actually
16:39register it because it was full of all
16:43of that input that I was getting from
16:45somewhere else, from my phone, from
16:47social media. And the second thing is
16:49that your hands were busy because you
16:51were always holding your phone. You were
16:54always touching it. It was always right
16:56here. And your hands kind of forget what
16:58other things even feel like. Your sense
17:01of touch, which is one of the most
17:02regulating senses we have, just goes
17:05dormant. So when you put your phone
17:07down, your hands go looking for things
17:10to feel. They're waking up again. And
17:13it's honestly not just touch, it's
17:14everything. The sky looks more
17:17beautiful. The light in your kitchen at
17:194:00 p.m. looks absolutely amazing, the
17:22way it never did before. The smell of
17:24your coffee hits differently. You can
17:26hear birds you never noticed lived in
17:28your neighborhood. Music sounds richer
17:31because now you're actually listening
17:33instead of just using it as background
17:35sound. So, all of those things just feel
17:37amazing and they happen when you finally
17:41put your phone down. All right, guys. I
17:43think it's going to be it for today's
17:45video. If you liked it, please don't
17:46forget to give it a thumbs up and
17:48subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also,
17:50just a reminder, if you want to check it
17:52out, you can get my free nervous system
17:54guide. The link is going to be in the
17:56description. If you want to continue
17:58watching something, you can click right
17:59here. Otherwise, thank you so much for
18:02being here and I'll see you in my next
18:04video. Bye.

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