LYNX LIFE LIBRARY

We are in the midst of a technological revolution where cell phones and AI have become essential tools for learning, connection, and participation in society. However, constant phone use can easily spiral into hours of doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram, leading to what many call "brain rot".

What is brain rot? It’s the passive consumption of easily digestible content that can shorten attention spans, impair memory, increase anxiety, and hinder problem-solving. After an hour of doomscrolling, what do you actually remember? Probably not much. Your brain receives small surges of dopamine that keep you scrolling far longer than you originally intended. Scrolling keeps us "connected" but I wonder if scrolling the highlight reel of someone else's life is keeping us from genuine connection in the form of vulnerability and compassion. 

Addiction isn’t limited to drugs and alcohol. For example, Gambling Disorder is officially recognized as a diagnosable addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—the clinical standard for identifying mental health and substance use disorders. Similarly, our brains’ reward system can keep us trapped inside of a world of likes and comments and instant gratification. The brain’s reward system works by releasing dopamine the "feel-good" hormone, whenever we experience pleasure. Over time, our brain craves that dopamine surge, and when it’s missing, we experience a kind of chemical withdrawal. This explains why we often reach for our phones instead of engaging in more meaningful self-care activities. The instant gratification of likes, comments, and notifications reinforces the cycle, keeping us hooked. The good news is our brains can return to normal levels of dopamine if we train them to. 

So, you're noticing that you are scrolling and finding it hard to stop or you don't know how to use your phone in healthy ways? Check out some of these resources, ideas, and apps below that could help: 

Mindfulness Based Smart Phone Apps

• Calm or Headspace provide breathing techniques, guided meditations, and other mindfulness-based activities.
• The way we live our life is not conducive to stillness, intentionality, or mindfulness. It takes an active dedication to invite those things into our lives. Our phones constantly notifying us of a text, a comment or like, or news updates leads to emotional dysregulation and feelings of anxiety and hyper-vigilance. You can bring yourself back down to a state of emotional regulation when you tap into meditation.

Tracking Emotions and Journaling Apps

• Applications: How We Feel, Daylio, DailyBean, Reflectly, Stoic, Clarity 
• Tracking your emotions and daily journaling can be a great way to understand what brings you joy and what is causing some discomfort in your life. Sometimes we don't notice how much going to the gym or seeing a specific friend impacts our daily mood until we track it and notice trends. 

Set Time Limits on Certain Apps

• If you go into Settings, search "Screen Time", it will show a breakdown of how many minutes you've spent on each app and at what times of the day and shows you a daily average. If you click "App Limits" you are able to Add a Limit for certain apps. Once you hit the limit, your phone will send a notification stating you are at the limit. 
• Brick: A company that has created a device to help monitor your phone use. You choose which apps to block, tap your phone to the brick, and all distractions are blocked and a timer is started to track how long you are not utilizing those apps. When you are ready, you can unlock your apps and websites by touching your phone to the device. Find more information here.

Track Your Health

• Utilize the Health App on your smart phone to track the number of steps you are taking per day. You can set personal goals and try to reach those. You are also able to track Hydration Consumption and Hours of Sleep. All of these things are examples of self-care and support us in showing up as healthy individuals. 

Medication Reminders

• MediSafe App: This app provides notifications to make sure that you remember to take your medications. You have to indicate if you have taken the medication, missed the medication, or skipped the medication.

Block Content

• The internet is full of content and some of that content makes us laugh and sometimes that content can increase our feelings of loneliness, anxiety, or depression. It is important to learn how to monitor how we are feeling when engaging with content and possibly block the content that makes us feel distraught or depressed. You can do this through Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. You can also block certain accounts on TikTok or Instagram if seeing their posts/videos just isn't going to be supportive to your mental health. 

Calming/Regulation

• Color Sort: Move tiles around to match different colors as a way to calm your mind and reset your emotional state.
• Worry Watch: Uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to help you track your worrisome thoughts and identify what is at the root of that anxious thought.