“Book good, phone bad” — a word on passive entertainment, but with science
The “why”
Have you ever had this feeling of life being sort of meaningless and just scrolling away before your eyes? We can not really slow it down, we can only do certain attempts on making it feel more meaningful and we all do it in different, and yet all in the same ways. I will not dive into the whole “meaning of life” topic right now, because it is immensely huge, but in all of my articles I am slowly taking you through my journey of bringing more and more purpose and meaning to my life. Let us talk about entertainment then.
I have purposefully used the word “scrolling” when talking about life passing by. It is so common that when we finish an intense day full of some type of work, in order to relax we fire up our devices. We scroll through our social media feeds, we watch facebook stories, instagram reels, youtube shorts, we turn on a tv and let it play and only then we can finally “relax”. I am going to (for now at least) stray away from talking about the addictive part of those experiences, because I believe there already is enough literature on behavioural addictions. Instead, let us — yet again — look at the “why”.
Types of attention and what they mean for us
It is a no-brainer that we need both rest and entertainment in our lives. According to the Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1989, 1995), humans have two types of attention — directed and effortless. The names are pretty self-explanatory, directed attention happens when we are focusing on something. It can, but does not have to be work. It can also be a conversation with somebody, driving a car or reading a book. Effortless (or involuntary) attention on the other hand happens when our brain is in the “autopilot” mode — it happens “when your attention is held by a less active or stimulating activity” (Daniel, 2014).
Directed attention requires a lot of mental effort, which makes it exhausting in the long run. It makes a lot of sense that we feel almost physically tired after a few hours of intellectual work. According to the ART, when faced with mental fatigue, we naturally attempt to switch to the passive state, in order to (nomen omen) restore our focus.
The problem is, however, that even though we don’t seem to realise it, “it turns out that focus in the brain is anchored to our visual system” (Huberman, 2021). Similarly as with two attention modes, we also have two vision modes: focused and dilated. The attention and the vision modes not only just correlate in the names — they can also induce each other. Every time we are focusing on something, our vision becomes narrow and we do not seem to notice the world happening in the periphery of our attention object. In the same way, when we relax, our gaze relaxes as well, like on a pleasant hike, when we don’t need to focus on anything specific and just enjoy casually noticing birds flying or leaves moving in the wind. We can however strengthen our attention by purposefully “staring” at an object (or a person), and if we start slowly looking around with no specific point of focus, we will become more relaxed.
The illusion of relaxation
Knowing these two pieces of data raises a question — does scrolling really make us relax? I believe no, it does not, because it contradicts the purpose we have behind it. Our phones or computers are fairly small devices requiring sort of a tunnel vision to properly notice every detail of that message, video or facebook feed we are looking at. We think that we are relaxed, because it is indeed passive time-spending. We do not need to make any decisions, we might just as well play something and mentally “zone out”. It is not, however, a relaxation and it often leaves us even more mentally drained, as instead of resting, we continue on focusing, without — however — realising it.
That in itself does not even seem very dangerous until we realise that chronic mental exhaustion leads to chronic stress, which in prolonged periods of time leads to anxiety. Chronically raised levels of cortisol (you know, that chemical known as a “stress hormone”) is also known to significantly lower our immune system response which, in return, opens a gateway to all sorts of diseases — the “easy” ones like a simple cold, or the life-wrecking ones like cancer.
“Woah, woah, woah” — you are probably thinking to yourself now — “Are you trying to tell me that if I scroll on my phone when I am tired, I am giving myself cancer? That is quite an exaggeration!” — and I will agree with you. It is not about those one or two instances of you scrolling through your phone. It is about the lifestyle, about making conscious choices for your health and your brain. Smoking one cigarette is not that terrible in itself (besides for the disgusting taste in your mouth I guess), but if you are a permanent smoker you are endangering yourself and harming your body.
Conscious choices
While trying to optimise certain areas of my life, I started looking at my own habits — the ones that made me happy in the long run and the ones that did not. Research (Gui, Stanca, 2009) shows that watching TV as a form of relaxation, at first is pleasant, but in the long run leaves us dissatisfied and can even lower the perceived quality of life. Using it as an example, I can confidently stretch it to other forms of passive entertainment — like prolonged consuming of content on social media or youtube. Without knowing the research yet, I started noticing that watching youtube videos is both fun and frustrating and the longer I do it, the more frustrating it becomes.
It felt sort of like digging through a bag of mixed candy. At first, there they were — all of my favourite candy pieces right at the top. But the longer I dug through the bag, the less tasty it was, and by the end, all I was stumbling on was disgusting licorice (sorry Danes). Not only was I not resting, but I was also not entertained and after hours spent like that, it left me feeling empty, sad but still almost not able to stop, because fruit, even though it was a healthy source of sugar, did not seem as tasty as that good candy.
Bingeing on social media and youtube made the top of my “negative habits” list, but if you ever tried quitting any bad habit, you know, that willpower is overrated. I decided to — yet again (sic!) — dig into the “why” and make a mind map of my activities with the focus on my needs. Weeks later, while reading “Irresistible” by Adam Alter, I found out that it is actually an approach used by therapists working with patients, who suffer from addictions.
Rest or entertainment
I think it is very easy for us (or at least for me) to confuse exhaustion with boredom and to apply the same cure to both — entertainment. I learned that while analysing the reasons standing behind my habits. My mind map was basically a list of activities, a very honest explanation of what motivates me to pursue a given activity, and a potential healthy alternative. When I say that the explanations were very honest, I mean that sometimes they were difficult to admit. For example, I used to post quite a lot of content to my reels/stories. Sometimes those were videos or pictures from my travels, sometimes of my cat, other times it would just be a picture of a cup of coffee and a book — so standard stuff you can find on your instagram or facebook feed. Why did I feel the need to do it, though?
At first I thought (as most people do), that I did it to share my life with my friends and family. This is the explanation sold to us by the social media companies and we all happily bought into it. It is somewhat true, however not completely. I realised that for me it is not only about sharing stuff, it is also about feedback. I felt the need for attention and it was only fair to honestly realise that — I do feel the need to be in the spotlight quite a lot, maybe more than the average person. Was it the best way to get it though? Did it bring value to my life? Would it be time better spent, if instead of taking, adjusting, sharing and then checking on views of pictures of a book, I would actually read it and talk about it to people who actually mattered in my life? Would it be better if instead of taking, sharing and checking on views of pictures of a meal I made, I would just invite somebody over, make them that meal and actually become appreciated and noticed by them?
That is a topic in itself and I know, this article is already long enough, so let us just pause here and say, sharing on social media was not about rest or feeling connected — it was about trying to get those little bits of attention and praise I craved (and if that is resolved in healthy ways, there is nothing wrong in wanting attention!). Scrolling was not really about feeling connected either — I did not give a damn about more than a half of posts I saw on my feed. It was simply me mixing up entertainment with rest.
Toxicity of the “grindset”
If you do decide to make a mind map of your own, let me reinforce it — there is absolutely nothing with the needs you have for attention, entertainment and rest. Humans can not always be productive. No matter how many motivational posts they share, all of those linkedin “grindset” influencers are either lying to their audience, or end up burning out.
As I mentioned before, never giving oneself a chance to relax causes prolonged periods of cortisol, which has been proven to (indirectly of course) trigger many various diseases. This means that even on a physiological level — entertainment is an important part of a healthy life.
Without getting too deep into the topic, I will just briefly mention that what feels entertaining to us is usually an activity that causes the release of dopamine in the brain. Chronically lowered levels of dopamine are associated with moodiness, unmotivation, depression and even drug abuse (which does not mean that depression is a direct result of not being entertained enough, depression is a multidimensional illness).
Without enough dopamine we are simply feeling bored and unhappy and as research shows (Nederkoorn, Vancleef, Wilkenhöner, Claes, & Havermans, 2016) people would rather choose “self-inflicted pain over boredom”. And as much as one’s work can be rewarding and engaging, we are not all that lucky (and probably privileged too), to always feel entertained by what we are paid to do.
Some people claim that people creating video games or social media portals use their knowledge of dopamine and human need for entertainment in an evil way. That they know how to make things addictive and that the internet and all sorts of multimedia entertainment was created to use those mechanisms for profit. I do not believe that. I mean of course, there are profit-oriented companies purposefully tinkering with their product to increase, what they call, customer retention, while they do realise that it means making profit from people’s addiction. In general though, I think multimedia entertainment is — just like us — a product of natural evolution and it is not inherently evil. I also believe that there are benefits to consuming this type of media, I do however strive for moderation.
I think it is a little bit like the case of Jerry Applesauce — my cat. In the beginning his mind was curious and excitable. He loved playing with his toys, exploring and bird-watching through the window. With time though, he learned more and more that bothering me is extremely entertaining, because unlike the birds outside of the window, I give him feedback — reaction. Most animals (including the human animal) love feedback and our brains prioritise it, and so did Jerry’s brain. Now his toys are not as exciting anymore. He gets bored with the birds. The only thing that is really interesting is bothering me, his chosen human. There is a trade-off though, if he bothers me too much, he gets kicked out of the room into the kitchen, where he stays sad, dissatisfied and frustrating, screaming and trying to scratch his way out back to the reward which is not even that rewarding anymore.
Were “boomers” right all along?
Ok, don’t close the page yet. They were not right. At least not in everything. Books do show a positive effect on the human brain though. Not only reading shows as sort of a “brain workout” on fMRI, but it is also proven to lower blood pressure and stress in general (Levine, Cherrier, Holding & Koestner, 2001), which is not present in other forms of entertainment.
Video games seem to have a positive effect on the brain too — improving certain problem-solving and logical thinking (Emihovich, 2018) and even though thoroughly tested and treated with a lot of suspicion, they do not seem to raise violence, or lower empathy (Gao, Pan, Li, Weng, Yao & Chen, 2017). The problem with video games is however, they are way more addictive than reading, so as with everything, their use calls for caution and moderation.
Social media however does tend to leave us more miserable than we were, and increase subjective feelings of loneliness while offering us a comfort in the illusion of connection (Youssef, Hallit, Kheir, Obeid & Hallit, 2020). We think that we connect with our friends or relatives by leaving a “like” or even a comment under their posts and we do not pursue more relationship-building activities than we would have otherwise. “Likes” and comments do not however strengthen relationships nearly as much as actual conversation, because they do not cater to our brains in the same way.
Activities producing an irregular, yet incredible amount of dopamine can also become… somewhat addictive. In the book “Irresistible” Alter states (while quoting a lot of reliable studies), that a huge part of our society is now suffering from moderate behavioural addictions. For some people those are so mild that they do not really notice them.
Those addictions do not only mean e.g. becoming indebted because of spending too much money on an online game. They can also be as “insignificant” as you not being able to become interested in your old hobby again, because all you seem to do is to consume multimedia entertainment. And while it is not morally wrong to do so, you are probably missing out on some parts of your life that would make it richer and more beautiful.
Better rest
This article started with me promising you a talk on passive and active entertainment and we are finally ready to tackle it. Kinda. As the names imply, active entertainment is basically experiencing joy while performing an action that requires our directed attention. This can be reading a book or playing a video game, but it can also be painting an ugly dragon, singing a song (even though off-key), dancing at a party or talking to a friend. Those activities can be either social or solo. There is also passive entertainment — which happens when we are experiencing joy while our attention is involuntary, in other words, when our brains are on “auto-pilot”.
There are times when our brains need entertainment and there are times when our brains need rest, and passive entertainment, even though so often preferred, is a poor substitute to actual rest. The need for rest is always preceded by a somewhat exhausting activity — either a physical one or a mental one, requiring focus.
Sooner or later you will learn to recognise the need for rest easier, but for now, just start with asking yourself, every time you default to scrolling or watching something — “am I bored or tired”. Billions of people come home from work and claim to be tired, so they plop in front of a tv and waste their lives away, eventually slipping into the depressing work-sleep scenario, where they lose any interest in life.
It would be way more beneficial for those people to switch to an indirection-attention-style rest. What would it be? That depends on the current state. If you are physically somewhat fine, but mentally exhausted — go outside and take a walk. Multiple studies prove that time spent in nature lowers stress, helps regain mental power, so needed for directed attention, and can even speed up the healing process. You do not need to climb a mountain or have a five hour long walk, do not overdo it. For me usually somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes is enough to feel better and to declutter my mind, but you will know yourself best once you start experimenting.
If you are feeling even better than “somewhat fine” physically, opt for sports. If you are mentally drained from social interactions (I see you out there, introverts!), go for a run or a weight lifting session. On the other hand, if you have been working home alone and you crave social interaction, go play a social sport.
There will be days when you feel completely drained both physically and mentally. Those days call for either a nap or an NSDR protocol. If you can not fall asleep in the middle of the day (like me), then great news — research shows that Non Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) can be almost as effective as a shallow nap. As Huberman sums up the research in his podcast “Huberman lab”, “if immediately after [a task requiring learning new information] people took a 20 minute NSDR protocol or a shallow nap, just closing their eyes with no sensory input, the rates of learning were significantly higher for that information […].”. NSDR protocols can be found for free online in the form of yogic sleep, hypnosis or guided meditation. Personally, I found a guided meditation on spotify. I do not do it for spiritual reasons, but for rest and it works way better than when I used to put on some funny video and zone out instead.
There will also be days when you will feel drained physically, but not mentally. If you do not feel like sleeping, because your mind requires stimulation, you have a few options there. If it is only a brief moment, then keep in mind that our brains do not need to fill every waking second of non-activity with some activity. Meaning — if you are sitting for 5 minutes on a bus, just take that rest and look out of the window. Watch people, look at the rain, give yourself a break. Your brain needs way more rest than you realise it anyway. If you are faced with a few hours to kill, do something creative (like painting, writing, drawing etc) or reach for a book.
“I can not focus on reading”
Yes, I know that this is what you are going to tell me. I know that feeling very well. The feeling of wanting to do something productive and good, but just not being able to focus, because it is just so much easier to watch a video. Luckily, we already have the solution, in fact it came to us with research. Remember that study about people preferring even self-inflicted pain over boredom? Well guess what — if you are really really bored and you do not allow yourself any other forms of entertainment, reading that book will suddenly become appealing.
It might sound ruthless and it feels ruthless, but what is even more important is that — it works. You can use apps like “Freedom”, put your phone into some locked safe, hide your computer in a closet — do whatever you need to keep yourself from making the other forms of entertainment as difficult as possible. I never really needed to go that far, but when I was “quitting” Facebook at first I just logged out of it and removed the login information from the browser’s memory. Then I removed the youtube app. It was already annoying enough to have to search and log into those websites every time I wanted to use them. For you it might not be enough, you know yourself best.
Bottom line, just believe in the research. If you give yourself a long enough time of boredom — other, more healthy, activities will eventually become way more appealing.
Active and healthy entertainment
Creation is usually listed amongst the most satisfying forms of active time-spending. In the book “Digital minimalism” Cal Newport describes cases of people, who after achieving financial independence kept working. Not for money and not literally working as in continuing with their jobs. Instead, they simply chose activities that brought them the most joy. Some people started painting, others renovation. There was a case of a couple who bought a property with a backyard full of overgrowing, wild bushes and trees, so in their free time they went out with a shovel (and sometimes a chainsaw) and began to successfully clean to and “tame” the wilderness.
I like to juggle my hobbies. I do a little bit of knitting, a little bit of painting, a little bit of writing, playing music and signing. Sometimes I make jewellery. I used to do martial arts for some time, then I lost my interest. Now I run and lift weights, but sooner or later I will probably get back to martial arts again. Writing is probably the most satisfying hobby I have ever had, but it also is the most demanding one, especially now, with all the research I try to put into it. It is also my way to get some of that attention and social appreciation that I crave. Instead of slapping a picture of my morning coffee on instagram, I digest and describe on my blog things I have been reading and thinking about the most.
Social engagement is also important, way more important than it seems to some people. It is good to combine entertainment needs with social needs. This way you can cook for your friends, play board games and sports together. For me the big obstacle was perfectionism and utility. I struggled painting while knowing that I will never be an artist. Running while realising that I will never be a marathon runner. Doing things, but not being the best at them. Doing things with no final goal, with no purpose. I think I am still learning how to let go of the internal competitor I have. It is getting way better though.
In conclusion
I know that not everybody feels the same need to break down their lives into small pieces and to optimise, micromanage every one of those pieces. I do realise that on a certain level I sound like an alien being, trying to understand what it means to be a happy human and honestly, sometimes it even feels like that. In my life I have encountered a lot of struggle, fight and pain. While being admitted to a hospital for a whole year, I think something inside of me shifted and never became the same again. It kicked off this whole transformation I have been going through, this whole search.
In the end, we are all just trying to do our best and to be as happy as we can. Sometimes we will not be entertained, excited or satisfied. Sometimes we will fail in the pursuit of our best selves. It is also okay. Not all things in life are meant to be entertaining and exciting. Some things still are and should be about will power. Some things should be rewarding in the long run, not just instantly. The most important is that we stay conscious of our choices and that it is us, making the decisions about how we live our lives, and not some external forces monetising our attention and exhaustion.
