The Craft Basket: An Online Trend About Not Being Online

A new trend has emerged on my TikTok for you page: anti-scrolling. As opposite as it sounds, people online have been pushing back against their habits of spending all day on their phones consuming content. Whether people are feeling the effects of doomscrolling on their mental or physical health or are simply being tired of wasting their time, people seem to be rebelling against spending their time online.

I do enjoy scrolling on my phone, but there is a difference between intentionally scrolling for a few minutes to decompress and spending all day “rotting” on your phone.

Rotting refers to the habit of laying in bed scrolling on your phone for a long period of time. A lot of time, the act of rotting is unintentional, simply a habit that you cannot seem to break.

One of the biggest challenges of becoming less online is replacing your time. It can be hard to go from constant stimulation from your phone to the silence and thoughts of your own mind. However, as many proponents of the anti-scrolling trend say, we are not supposed to be consuming content all the time. We should be creating and living our own lives, not watching someone else’s.