Smartphone culture & the urge to record EVERYTHING

Perhaps some people record things in order to distance themselves from the intensity of the situation, as a coping mechanism? It’s disturbing to me that in a crisis emergency situation someone might think ‘where’s my phone I have to record this’ instead of ‘I have to get myself and others to safety’…

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I’m not really addicted to scrolling as I never had this issue.
But sometimes there are moments when there is really absolutely nothing to do - times when idling is required but the scenery is not interesting. Then I pull out my phone and look at the stuff that is available on the (offline) storage. For a long time, I haven’t had a phone plan with mobile internet so my only phone entertainment were the files on my phone’s storage.

Looking at old photos is intense for me, so I don’t really do it that long in one sitting. Maybe 5 to 10 minutes.
Other offline entertainment would be digital books I have stored.

So it’s hard to say. I don’t really feel like looking at old photos, the nostalgia hits me hard every time. So, in a way, it is a form of offline scrolling to waste time. But I cannot do it for too long, hence it is not a form of doomscrolling.

Btw: on the airplane, I usually just try to sleep or look out of the window. I haven’t done any long distance flights, so sitting around like that for up to 4 hours is okay for me.