Cure Your Scrolling Addiction

Imagine you are appointed by an evil dictator to run a new government department called Lives Lived Poorly. You have one goal: implement policies to make sure people waste as many of their waking hours as possible. The way you measure success is, when someone is lying on their deathbed, they say something like: “That was a real blur,” or “I wish I had done more.”

Let’s say your job starts today. What do you do?

Unfortunately for today’s humans, your job as supreme overlord might be pretty easy. You might even not have to do anything. Most people already spend over 6 hours a day on the internet. American teenagers spend almost 5 hours a day scrolling social media alone. When TikTok went dark for less than a day in the United States in early 2025, the first word the Associated Press used to describe the reaction was “mourning”.

We are addicted to scrolling. It is consuming our lives. (The problem is so bad that you might even scroll past this sentence—or you’re not reading this at all because you scrolled past the email we sent you about it.)

So how do we kick the addiction?

There is no magic bullet that will save society. But you’re an individual. You can do things. And if you see yourself in those numbers above, or even if you don’t, you can try the steps below and see what happens. They are easy (practically). They may be hard (mentally and emotionally). Remember that like with any addiction, dependence, or attachment, simply saying “I’ll stop!” doesn’t tend to work.

Here’s one method you could try. It takes 30 days. Think of it like a game to beat.

Buy a second phone. This is now your default phone. Bring it around everywhere. A guide to setting up this new default phone:

Install the utilities you use (like Maps, Uber, maybe Spotify).
Don’t install social media. Don’t install anything with a feed either, like news apps.
Don’t set up email on the phone. And no work apps.
Give the phone number to people who are close to you and may need to reach you urgently. Like parents, kids, your partner, and close friends.

Keep your other phone. This is your fun phone. It’s for when you want to go to the proverbial casino. You use this once a day—or better, once a week.

Your old phone stays at your house, no matter what.
It’s not allowed in your bedroom.

For your computer, install something like this that blocks scrollable feeds.

Make a decision about social media. Should it be on your fun phone and your computer? Why do you have it? How much time are you okay spending on it? You don’t need to delete social media if you don’t want to, but what’s important is to be aware of how much you use it. We doubt that most people are aware.

Surround yourself with fun things you can do instead of scrolling. In therapy and addiction treatment, this is sometimes called behavioral substitution. Ideas:

Build a writing habit. Or a gym habit, or a running habit.
Download 100s of books that interest you.
Buy 10s or 100s of physical books.
Buy a few years’ worth of sheet music for an instrument you play.
If you don’t play an instrument, buy one. Learn to play.
Buy some sort of generative, creative tool: like a film camera or a journal and pen.
Buy a cookbook that looks interesting. Make something from it every day for 30 days.
Do something on this list.
You could also buy Legos or something silly that holds your attention for long periods of time in a non-toxic way. Point is, give yourself something to reach for.

Do this for 30 days. Try to catch your impulses. If you make it for 30 days, congrats. You may have successfully changed your defaults.

If you currently spend any amount of time scrolling each day, following these steps is a direct path to taking back that time for yourself. If you want to be dramatic (but realistic) you could even say that the steps above will help you reclaim more of your life.

Email us if you have any tactics that work better or if you want to let us know how this worked for you.

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