Last week I was flying back to Europe from Taipei, my flight was planned on the 1st of March. I was at the end of a 2 month period on the island where I felt quite at peace. Life was easy, the nicer days were coming back and I was enjoying a stable time before the next whirlwind of travel came.

I managed to get ahold of my screen addiction by finally revoking my access to Reddit and YouTube most of the day. It freed up a lot of time for me to disconnect and relax. I was looking to stop obsessing over everything happening online, and reduce the noise. It was mostly working, at least going in the right direction.

On the morning before my flight, I was having breakfast with my visiting family, my brother in law told me I should keep an eye on my flights. He knew I was connecting through Abu Dhabi, and knew more about what was brewing there. As soon as the breakfast was done, I hopped back on the news and started scanning for potential troubles with my travels.

My day was done by then. Not only was my type A mind searching for options to hop on another flight and not spend too much money, but my other self was also diving into the conflict happening. Quickly the night came, and I had spent my day following live news and escalations. I found other solutions for my flight and was good on that end, but I couldn’t get unstuck from the screen.

I had plans that night that slipped through, as I opted to keep my eyes glued to feeds until fatigue won me over.

The next day was the same, and whatever progress I had made to reduce meaningless screen time evaporated. I was back to refreshing the sites that were supposedly blocked, obsessing over statements and evolutions.

It took one event, having a brief remote impact on myself, to deregulate whatever balance I managed to reach. And only now am I realizing how much had derailed from that.

The good thing is that now I am aware and can push back, trying not to be too hard on myself along the way.