Lately, the running theme for this blog has been anti-phone, and this post is no different. I can see how getting back my life and embracing boredom is leading to real improvements.
The Failed Experiments
I think most 20 something year olds would agree that too much screen time is bad. The majority have probably experimented with Apple’s Screen Time feature or maybe a device like the Brick.
I’ve tried countless experiments over the years. Like many of my peers, I acknowledge that being on my phone for 4+ hours a day is problematic. I’d heard snippets about how amazing low-phone life could be. Content creators constantly talk about the beauty of boredom and the benefits of going tech-free.
But nothing stuck for more than a few days. I’d always end up back in the void of my screen.
The Shower Thoughts Revelation
Then something clicked. An interesting video popped up on my YouTube home screen during a brainrot session. It was a video by Joe Delaney, a fitness YouTuber from England.
He was talking about shower thoughts and made a fascinating connection: the term only really took off once social media exploded. His hypothesis? Social media killed the downtime we used to have.
What We Lost
In that downtime, we would:
- Get bored
- Pontificate
- Create
- Lead ourselves to new ideas
- Recognize patterns in our lives and world
But the internet as we know it from 2010 onward removed that sacred time. We replaced contemplation with mindless scrolling through content we couldn’t remember twenty minutes later.
The Last Refuge
The removal of boredom time wasn’t 100% efficient. There was still one place where scrolling wasn’t an option: the shower.
Since most phones can’t handle constant showers, our bathrooms became:
- The one place to escape the noise
- The last refuge for being alone with our thoughts
- The breeding ground for what we thought were revelations
But we were having those same revelations all the time before, until we replaced that mental space with screens.
My Personal Wake-Up Call
Hearing all this was my revolutionary moment. I realized I was having shower thoughts that a decade prior would’ve been couch thoughts, sidewalk thoughts, or driving thoughts.
Even Worse: Optimizing Away My Last Refuge
What hit hardest was realizing I was trying to eliminate shower thoughts too. I bought a mini Bluetooth speaker about a year ago to listen to podcasts in the shower.
With a fully remote job, I have no commute time for podcasts. So instead of carving out dedicated time, I figured I’d multitask in the shower. “It’s just audio so why dedicate separate time when I can do two things at once for double productivity?”
The Mental Fog Mystery
That’s when it all clicked. In my search for time optimization, I was shooting myself in the foot. I’d been wondering why things weren’t clicking like they used to.
For the past few years, I’ve felt mentally foggy. I thought it was:
- Social media entirely
- A COVID side effect
- Just plain old age
I wasn’t sure, but I candidly told friends: “I think I’m getting dumber.”
Failed Solutions
I tried filling the gaps with:
- Extra note-taking
- More informative YouTube videos
- Insightful podcast episodes (while showering)
But this video made me realize I needed to strip away these layers and give my brain more room to exercise.
The Gym Analogy
You don’t go to a gym, throw 400lbs on a bench press, and expect to rise to the weight’s level as it crushes your solar plexus.
Similarly, you can’t overload yourself with information and expect scientific breakthroughs. You need:
- Proper rest
- Appropriate load
- Actual training (not just watching others at the gym on your phone)
Early Results
My experiment is just beginning, but I’ve already felt the effects of getting my time back:
- I think more deeply about things
- I more quickly can recognize when my phone is becoming a distraction
- I find my phone less interesting
- I prefer deep thinking sessions to instant Googling
Important Caveats
This isn’t hard science. Joe’s video wasn’t a scientific study about social media causing the shower thoughts phenomenon.
The placebo effect is real. My feeling of “getting dumber” and the rebound could be placebo. But an effect is still an effect.
Correlation ≠ causation. I understand if this “science” doesn’t hold water for you.
One of the lessons here is if you find something that works for your goals in life then take that thing and run with it. Even better is to tell others about it and hope at least one person finds it useful.