I decreased my screentime and people found a way to bother me.
7/27/2026
For the last three months, I’ve deactivated my Facebook account to help my mental health recover after seeing the overwhelming comments about the death of students and journalists at the hands of our military, calling them communist at best, corned beef at worst. And while the entire time I didn’t find it difficult or tempting to reactivate it (although I do sometimes miss seeing cat videos), I found another problem that had sprung up because of this.
People pester me to check out what they saw online, either by sending them to me or, worse, asking me to come see their phone.
The instances become frequent when it’s just me reading, boring myself to death, or watching a movie. When I explicitly limit my screen time, I did not account for other people’s screen time and their penchant for sharing what they saw funny or horrifying or politically charged online. Worse, their constant scrolling and loud volumes distract me more than intentionally interrupting me while I enjoy my offline activities.
Is this what a recovering, post withdrawal, addiction feels like?
My first reactions were to acknowledge, with annoyance, the content and move on, or to ignore it altogether (especially if I’m doing something else). But I’m figuring out how to better navigate this without tarnishing my social interactions when I’m doing this to improve the social aspect of my life.
I understand that my journey is not their journey. The desire to restrict my social media use is my choice, not theirs. While I’m highly supportive of them, should they decide to do the same, I understand that the way we go about it would be different too. Thus, while they would limit theirs in some other aspect, it may not be applicable to how I do it. I have to be patient.
While being understanding can help, I too have to put restrictions and boundaries if they were to support my decision to do so. I remember these photos of papers taped on doors or on a person’s back saying that they should not be disturbed, for they are working. I would have to establish my working hours, my Do Not Disturb hours, depending on how long I need to work. Hopefully, people would stop being upset if I decided to ignore them within those times.
I know I have the tendency to isolate, and I can’t go on forever ignoring people. Therefore, I must make it a habit not to neglect or ignore any bids for connection. Some people share funny videos or memes as a way to connect with others, and I know that’s definitely the case for my partner and my sister. On the moments that count, I must acknowledge them, give a bit of my thought, and move on.
They said it’s harder to get back to a task than to maintain a focus on a task. And while I don’t fully subscribe to the individualism that are often a popular remedy to most personal and social problems we face, I know I must maintain mental resiliency. That means not getting to hung up on whatever people share to me on social media and stop overanalyzing it, especially now that it’s plagued with ragebait content. If it does bother me, I’d have to write it down and let it go with the idea that I’ll get back to it some other time. More often than not, it’s no longer important or triggering. Establishing a process to deal with these intrusions on instances that all guards were down only to meet something invasive after is a better way to cope than be spiteful.
Finally, my last ditch effort to stop people from annoying me with online content when I don’t want anything to do with it would be to disassociate. I will look at it with glassy eyes, nod, and continue with whatever it is that I’m doing, never really processing whatever it is that is in front of me. While it might be rude, if all of the above did not work, I can clear my conscience because I have done all that I can, and yet they still show me this piece of a skit with a joke I don’t find funny.
It’s a mix of self discipline and self maintenance. It’s a practice I’m willing to maintain, and thus, will do whatever it takes to nurse my sanity.
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