15 creative ways to stop scrolling social media
I know that so many of us spend a lot of time on our screen. We feel that pang of guilt when our phones update us with our weekly screen time. We often think to ourselves, I’ll do better at that.
We make promises that we’ll try and scroll less, but the lure of scrolling facebook to see old school friends update about their new baby or aimlessly watching instagram stories to catch up on a bloggers house renovation, become a habit once again.
Perhaps it’s the fomo, that we might miss something important, that drives us back… despite the fact that the only potentially dramatic thing that happened last week was a bit of gossip on the local neighbourhood facebook page about a rogue bin.
With sleep issues and mental health issues* increasing, more and more research has been done to investigate the link between social media and overthinking, anxiety and switching off. We already know that screen time suppresses the release of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin in your brain, so looking at our phones right before bedtime as we do, means it’s harder to switch off and head into sleep.
If you’re like me (scrolling aimlessly every night despite knowing we shouldn’t) and would rather spend your time with more intention, this post should help give some ideas for an evening digital detox.
Below are 15 ideas that will help us all get creative and away from the screen. Some of these can be applied to our night time routine, others can just be done whenever you feel like you’d reaching for your phone - perhaps head to this list instead and see what takes your fancy!
All the examples below range from small tasks to bigger, more time consuming activities. Sometimes it feels daunting setting aside an hour before bed, so you could start with the smaller ones and work your way up from there.
If you have ten minutes:
Grab a sketchbook and draw five things you can see from where you’re sitting
Take an object in front of you, set a timer and draw it in 5 minutes, draw it again in 1 minute and then again in 20 seconds! This is a great way to loosen up and practice form and shape rather than small details
Find a couple of photos and collage them together to create a journal page. Use rippings from an old magazine, a piece of wrapping paper or any other loose ephemera you have lying around. If you need some help with where to start, have a read of my post ‘How to art journal’.
Get an interiors magazine and create a collage of your dream house (I used to love this as a kid, it was like Sims but offline and more tactile!)
If you have half an hour:
Use a new medium to draw the view outside your window. Ideas include: Charcoal, marker pens, gouache paint.
Brain dump everything in your head and add your doodles around the page
Practice some mindfulness and do some colouring in. (I really love the Johanna Basford books if you’re looking for some beautiful, intricate designs)
Design a bookmark based on the book you’re reading, then read a few chapters before you head to bed.
Hand letter your favourite quote. I find Pinterest a great place to go for lettering inspiration. Have a look at my traditional typography board for some starting points.
Head to your garden and draw what you can hear. This is a great one to test the imagination! The rustle of the trees? Bats, foxes? Police sirens, people down the road having a late night party? Don’t worry about references or if your drawings look like clip art. It’s just a fun activity to bring your mind into the present :)
Write a letter to a friend, just because. I think getting handwritten letters in the post is one of the worlds greatest joys and due to instant messaging and social media, doesn’t happen so often now. It’s not only lovely for the recipient, but it’s a really nice way to switch off and do something analogue.
If you have an hour:
Buy a cheap canvas (from somewhere like The Works or The Range, nothing fancy) and create an abstract piece with acrylic paint. Focus on making patterns and have fun with it, just enjoy the mark making process.
Take a still from a movie and paint what you see, focusing on shape and colour palette. Film Grab is website great for finding film stills.
Create something using a ready made colour palette - Adobe Color is a great website to find some already made colour palettes.
Paint a study based on an artist you love. Paint how they do, copy their style. This is a great way to learn new techniques, though obviously this is just for practice! Some ideas for you are: Studio Ghibli, David Hockney, Quentin Blake.
As with most of my creative posts, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t think of yourself as a ‘good’ artist. The point is that you’re away from the screen and just enjoying the process - enjoy grabbing a pencil and paper and don’t worry about the end result. This is for you, nobody else needs to see it! Try not to worry if what turns up on the paper doesn’t correlate with what’s in your head! It’s not about the final piece, but the process and getting us away from the digital world :)
*https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518301827
