To scroll or not to scroll?

The word 'scroll' has some antiquity originally referring to a strip of parchment. Scrolls were revered for their record keeping and stored information. There would have been some sense of occasion when they were unfurled. Crucially, as they were material, and were made from parchment, they would, ultimately come to an end. Unlike digital scrollling, which lacks ceremony, attention, a sense of sacredness and is just quite mindless and passive.

I've spent several years feeling frustrated by the way I'd end up streaming, not on something worthwhile, as I might have found in a scroll, but just watching endless posts and clutter flash across my phone screen.

Six months ago, I lost my smart phone and took that as a sign to try live without it for a while. I'm using a Nokia brick now, that will do phone calls, texts, and basics like a torch and an alarm. I wondered if I'd be able to manage, but I've not missed the smart phone at all. In fact, my life is better. The anxiety has dropped. I was always worrying where it was. Also dropping it was problematic. I've got through at least 6 phones in the last few years, just through them breaking after slipping through my fingers. I no longer feel that I have to be switched on or available. My social media is all done on my laptop now, and what's fascinating is that it's just not as easy to scroll on a laptop - the tide of clutter and mostly digital twaddle is just easier to see it for what nonsense it all is on a bigger screen. I've powered through loads of books now I'm not having my attention hijacked by scrolling, and life just feels better. I can't see me turning back to a smart phone any time soon.