I Picked Up My Phone… Again by Shuxuan Chang

 I Picked Up My Phone… Again

        “Hahaha!” I laughed as another funny video played on my phone.Whenever I have a spare moment, my first instinct is to scroll through videos. It just felt like good fun—devoid of the pressure associated with studying—and brought me nothing but pure joy.

          It feels like I just can't stop watching videos—and it’s the same for all my friends and classmates. The moment we get our hands on our phones—even if there’s nothing important going on—our minds immediately turn to all the social media apps. Sometimes, when my friends and I are having lunch and run out of things to talk about, we each just pull out our phones and start scrolling. 

         Using our phones has become our automatic response to boredom.—and it’s the easiest one at that: all it takes is unlocking the screen to open an app and start watching videos. Why is it that the more videos I scroll through, the more engaged I become? It’s actually quite strange; whenever I stumble upon a video that interests me, just two or three clips later, the app immediately recommends similar content that aligns with my interests.It feels as though the algorithm in the background can actually read my mind—which makes me want to just keep scrolling endlessly, unable to bring myself to put my phone down.

        Although social media helps me relax, I sometimes wonder whether it is slowly taking away meaningful conversations and valuable time from my life.