The title can be a bit confusing, and it my not be a direct question here, but the question is based on myself being in a place in my life where everything moves very fast, I have lots of things to do, and little time enjoying things that earlier would define my life. I have recently started on a journey trying to make my spare time more “slow”, to be more in the moment at actually enjoy doing the small things.
Examples of this can be that I have made my smartphone very dumb, by removing all the apps that makes you doom scroll. This was not hard as I lost interest in Instagram, facebook and other apps about 3 years ago. I just felt like I was “too old” for these kinds of apps and the time they steal from you (I am “only” 33 now).
I have also sold my SteamDeck, and instead bought a old-ish computer running windows 7 and a CRT monitor that I keep in my apartment. I use this to play older games that I know I enjoy, as well as trying out the games I never played as a kid (I only played sports games, but found out I really love everything from Elder Scrolls to Ghost recon and so on). In this way I find it more enjoying to sit down on a Friday night, after me and my girlfriend have eaten the usual Friday dinner and watched some crap movie (because that’s default in our lives these days. Watching stuff on streaming and scrolling at the same time) and have a beer by my side playing something or exploring some content online. ON A CRT MONITOR. I know I sound like a tool trying very hard for nostalgia, but I cant’ feel anything other than that its working.
I am also considering other things to “dumb” down my life for the sake of getting some kind of “peace” with the things I do. For example buying physical news papers to have a “quiet” moment reading, instead of sitting on my phone doing four things at the same time.
Has anyone else felt this way about not being in the moment when doing things?
No, because I actively separate the things I’m doing.
Smart phone gets put away if I’m focused on something else. I block off time to do things to minimize interruptions and distractions. Often this requires working around the schedules of the wife and kiddo, but it is doable for the most part. I play modern games on a modern PC with friends, but again the time is (mostly) blocked off for that and I am fully engaged. I can’t do the scrolling and videos at the same time because I’m not able to read and listen to something else at the same time.
While I do tend to scroll my phone with a show or movie I’m not focused on in the background, that is mainly because I want to scroll and the TV is there to drown out background noises.
It really comes down to choosing what to be focused on, and it may take practice. I have ADHD and it takes a lot of intentional work to stay focused on things, but it is doable without needing to revert to retro tech, which I found more distracting at the time before working on intentionally avoiding distractions!