I opened my phone to check the weather. Forty-five minutes later I was reading an argument in the comments section of a news article that had nothing to do with weather. I still don’t know if it’s going to rain. I set the phone down and sat there for a second feeling vaguely bad - not about anything specific, just generally lowered. Like I’d eaten something that looked like food but wasn’t. My thumb had been moving the whole time without any decision being made.

The loop doesn’t feel bad while it’s happening. That’s the thing nobody warns you about. Each swipe feels like it might deliver something good. The anticipation is almost pleasant. It’s only when you stop and look at the clock that the dread arrives - that forty-five minutes went somewhere and you can’t remember any of it. And then the easiest solution to that feeling is to open the app again. I close it seven or eight times a day. How many times do you think you do?