I struggle to do any of my hobbies on a consistent basis, even though I enjoy themI go months of time basically spending my time doing nothingReally honestly nothing - like sure I talk to friends and do a tiny bit of whatever I want to do - but the majority of my time is just spent refreshing YouTube and Twitter, reading things I don’t care about and watching videos at 1.5x speed I also don’t really care aboutI’ve had times where I just close discord and Twitter and YouTube and can perform tasks better, but it feels so odd for that to be the only solutionLike right now I think it’s been 7 months since I’ve watched a show or read a book (not that I have any obligation to, but I do enjoy it!!)I want to just naturally do it but cannot picture that being the case everI can only act if I put extremely rigid and spelt out rules in place And that’s kind of a key point hereNo real internal, forward drive, only able to act within confines I’ve set - I think because my base state is nothingnessEven the thought of doing something often leads me to feeling incredibly stifled and stressed because it’s like that time I will spend is “locked in”It’s something I am giving upSo instead of do nothing of note, but it’s nothingness that can stop at any timeI can only blame social media for this but I want to interact with my hobbiesSometimes I have a bout of a few good weeks but then go back to nothing0 or close to 0 for monthsCan anyone please give advice, was this written clearly at all or too much of a blogfag, also please don’t relate about your own experiences unless you can offer advice
>>34552161If your base state was nothingness, you wouldn't be having this problem. Social media scrolling isn't "nothing", it's still an activity, so it drains energy and saps attention. You're spending all of your energy on meaningless activity, which blocks you from meaningful activity. You should try your hand at actual nothingness if you want to get out of this cycle. Pick a spot in your home that isn't near your computer or phone and make that your "default" location from now on. When you wake up in the morning, or when you find yourself with downtime, sit there quietly until something worth doing comes to mind, and then go do it. Those little moments spent sitting quietly should be enough to let you store up motivation, and it also gives you time to think and reflect.
>>34552161Social media has a strong financial incentive to keep your eyes on it for as long as possible.So yes, by any objective metric, it is brain poison. It has to be in order to compete.It intends by design to lock you in a dopaminergic loop. Every aspect of the UX is designed as such. All of the content is personally tailored to your personal simulacrum, either for you to agree or disagree with.>Can anyone please give adviceI'm assuming from the fact you're asking this question that the possibility of simply removing yourself from them is unacceptable to you?
>>34552236I’m willing to like 90% remove myself from them but it feels a bit extreme to just go off the grid in that regardIt would be like a former fatty never eating cake again after dieting - just the regulation of consumptionwas the probably not the thing itself >>34552193Interesting I’ll try thatI have heard of like the staring at a wall shitI’ll probably just swivel my way away from my PC and go in a corner Only thing is I wonder if I’ll find myself ever wanting to do things again, especially sporadically, because that’s another thing I miss from my youthNot having to pre-plan stuff just being able to relax and do things naturallyBut I guess it would just take a bit of willpower and less priority on desire to do some things and get momentum again
>>34552161Yes, every time you read a post, get a like or a follow your brain releases dopamine, which in turn wires you to crave more of the same. You should be getting dopamine from performing difficult tasks to completion, that enables growth and deep fulfillment.
>>34552161How am I supposed to settle for C-cup sally when I know titcowGODDESSes like that exist THOUGH?
>>34552334In addition, complete abstinence is the best way to handle any addiction. Because once you get a little taste again after stopping, your brain will try to reason with you that it needs more. If you agree to give it more, it spirals quickly, and you’ll be back to square one before you know what happened.
>>34552343Isn’t it also possible to just not start your free time with it too?It won’t suck away from your available attention span you have left for that day (assuming a workday not weekend) or get you into that spiral againThen after getting something done if you use it, you’ll see it’s not as fulfilling / be able to stop soonerI’ve also considered trying to substitute the pointless tasks by doing them in tandem with things I wanna doLike only using YouTube if I’m writing along side it for example
>>34552351>Like only using YouTube if I’m writing along side it for exampleThat seems counter-productive. Your goal is to strengthen your attention span and train yourself to give your full attention to the things you want to do. Turning multi-tasking into a habit like that will fry your attention span and make it ever harder to concentrate in the future.Right now with your current habits, do you sit and give Youtube your full attention or do you browse social media while listening to it in the background? If it's the latter, one good step forward would be to forbid yourself from ever multitasking. Either give Youtube your full attention or don't watch it at all, because if you're only half paying attention then that means it wasn't worth any of your attention.
>>34552374I basically graze I guess you could call itOpen YouTubeFind something Watch itOr pause it forever while opening another YouTube tab to find something elseFind nothing go on Twitter insteadScrollReturn to YouTubeCheck discordJerk offEdge a bit lose interestTwitterEtcSo yeah I guess I am just a fucking apeNot self hating more just realizing lolOnly one task at a time really does make senseI do not at all think that setting timers or quotas would help me be more productive, not that you suggested this just stating it cause it came to mind, think I would just avoid doing things at all costs then
