What social effects have you observed as a consequence of scrolling ?

I have been coming across a lot of videos of people embracing a counter culture of using lesser and older technology - notebooks, vinyl, CDs, watches, timers as ways of reclaiming their lives and attention. I think there is some merit to this.

I have noticed some adverse effects of this - Reduced attention spans, vast spans of time lost where we don't know what we did, fewer times for hobbies which could be physical, intellectually, spiritually or socially enriching for us in the long run, and makes us less interesting.

Reclaiming their attention span - It is something I feel very strongly about. The destructive impact of short-form reels on human attention span has been under rated. It was not too long ago when a lot of people saw movies and TV shows as easy forms of entertainment as opposed to lectures. But now most people struggle to put themselves through an entire movie or an episode without scrolling on their phone or fast forwarding. Our attention spans have dropped sharply and the reel algorithms are made for this - It drains vast loops of our time which we are not even aware of.

I feel my attention span diminishing - which leads to me struggling to do things like finish books. I also hate it when I see a group of people in a restaurant or in any public meeting where every member of the group is glued to their phone. It takes away quality time from people.

I also think screen addiction makes us less interesting. A lot of people lose large blocks of time where they do not know what they did. Many list scrolling or watching reel as a hobby or an activity with which they pass the time, when they could have done something more engaging which could have helped them grow physically, mentally or spiritually.

Scrolling is a relatively new phenomenon, but it does for the mind the same thing sitting all day does for the body - we have to spread more awareness about it. Hobbies and other ways to spend time are like physical exercise, required to sustain us in the long run even if they aren't the most convenient choice in the moment.