i saw a post on reddit the other day. i don’t have the link, but the idea has stayed with me, and i’ll summarize it: social media apps are intentionally designed to interrupt our thought process before it’s complete.

normally, we notice something, make sense of it, and then decide how to respond. but when we’re scrolling, we never reach that last step. the pace is so quick that we don’t even choose to move to the next image, video, or post, we just do it automatically. we get pulled into an endless loop of reacting to whatever comes next.

when the system blocks us from ever reaching the decision stage, it’s not a sign of weakness. our conscious control has been engineered out of the equation.

for me, the clearest takeaway is this: the easiest way to manage your time on a distracting app is to remove it entirely. and if you still find yourself scrolling on other apps, setting up blockers and reducing access as much as possible will help to a significant extent.