what i'm doing to try to be less brainrotted
tuesday, may 20th 2026, 2:55pm
especially since deciding i want to try and go back to uni as well as the unease and directionlessness(?) i've been feeling recently, i've been trying to be more aware of what i actually spend my time doing, how it makes me feel, and what affect it has on me.
doomscrolling, reels, and other short-form content.
i think this is number one most easily identifiable habit i'm trying to stop. sure, the content i see isn't stuff that is actually making me feel depressed or hopeless, but i'm sure you can relate to just getting sucked down the rabbit hole of watching stuff that isn't particularly thought-provoking, or provides you any sort of value. i've added limits on my phone for apps like instagram (i use ScreenZen, it's the best one I've found where half the features aren't paywalled) and I've found it's helped me be mindful of when i open up instagram since i only can a few times a day. it made me realise how often i automatically open instagram without thinking and just get stuck on reels i don't particularly care about but something something dopamine. i'm just trying to get that time back that i can be doing other things i know are actually beneficial to me.
resisting the urge to kill boredom.
i realised my habit of pulling out my phone without any aim in mind stemmed from boredom. the second i don't know what to do, i just get on my phone and look at... something. instagram, youtube, pinterest, check my emails (even though i'm not expecting anything). i don't give myself time to think any independent thoughts that may arise from my boredom, because i just automatically find something to fill my brain with. but boredom really isn't that awful and intolerable. boredom is what gives your brain the opportunity to think up ideas on how to entertain yourself, so i've been trying to allow myself that boredom instead of outsourcing it to the content the various algorithms in my phone have decided will most effectively capture my attention.
realising that taking back my time and attention is a rebellious act.
not to toot my own horn, but i'm pretty cool i reckon. and i am capable of having cool ideas and making cool things. but getting sucked into the social media doomscroll when i could be spending my time having cool thoughts and making cool things? not cool.
i really don't get much inspiration to act or create by seeing things on social media (if anything, it makes me just want to copy what someone else has done instead of experimenting and making something uniquely my own), i'm just passively consuming content, *thinking* about doing something with the time i could spend *actually* doing something.
all these social media algorithms are *designed* to capture my attention and keep me on their platform, using my behavior as data to sell to their advertisers. they want their users to continue consuming content, because if they're getting bored or realising they can better spend their time somewhere else, that's less money for them! i think spending my time and attention thinking my own thoughts instead of being told what to think, creating my own things, learning things that genuinely interest me, that's way better than giving it to big tech billionaires.
it's been a few months now since i decided i wanted to move the focus of my creative practice from selling to creating for *me*, and i'm surprised it's taken as long as it has to feel capable of experimenting and persevering at things even if i don't think it's *good*. i just want to create for the sake of creating, experimenting, following whatever i find fun and enjoyable instead of what would sell, and so far it's definitely helped me enjoy art more than i used to.
i think it's helping me get less 'brainrotted' too. i get less frustrated about not making something 'good', i'm able to push past that and just enjoy the process, and i like getting focused on working with my hands and away from a screen.
recently, my favourite thing to do is make ribbon rosettes. i've always been a fan of small fiddly crafts.
thank you for reading my ramblings! i hope it was a little insightful or relateable. if you have any thoughts i always love to hear them so leave a little comment perhaps? regardless, if you're reading this, i appreciate you spending some of your precious time and attention on my little blog. I hope it was worth it :)
- kit