Man Places One Millionth Digital Bet on Deathbed; Regrets Nothing After Another Missed Parlay

Want seven hours of your life back per day? Surrender your screens.

You are going to die. Everyone you know? They’re toast too. But don’t fear our impending doom, dear reader. We’re all cursed with the same fate. When you accept this, you’re free to live. The best way to do that? Putting down the phone and engaging with the physical world.

Maybe I lost you there. Death to tech. Dramatic maybe, but for me, it’s a simple connection. One of my biggest fears is living long enough to be old and regretting how much time I spent staring at a screen.

The average American adult spends over seven hours a day looking at screen. That’s 2,555 hours per year. Over a lifetime? Americans spend more than 22 years staring into a digital box. That’s if we live until 78. If I live long enough, I might push 30 years of screen time. Achievement unlocked.

I’ve ignored the people I was with to gaze at a screen. It’s actually embarrassing how many times I’ve done it. Scrolling social media, enamored with some video content, sharing memes, or texting someone not with me. You know what that did to the people I was with? If let them know that they weren’t as interesting as my pocket computer.

Who likes being around someone whose nose is constantly in a screen? Yet, I do it every single day to those I love the most. It’s rude. I know that. And I can’t stand when others do it to me, but I still do it.

I can’t have a conversation worth a dang while hypnotized by a screen. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. Multi-tasking is a myth created by Corporate America. When someone is talking to me and I’m locked into a digital world, the person talking to me knows I’m not listening. They know this because when people do this to me; I KNOW they are not listening.

It’s not just these mindless actions that’s hurting my quality of life. When people interrupt me while I’m into a screen, I pounce into a rage. How dare they? This is my precious time. Virtual reality and I need alone time. It’s sad how many times I’ve gotten aggravated when someone tried to talk to me during a show or movie. How dare they interrupt me as I suck down corporate content for data harvesting?

For years, I constantly scrolled on my phone while I watched T.V. shows, gambled online, listened to music, and ignored everything that was actually happening in my life. It numbed my mind and made me terribly unhappy, but it provided instant comfort with brief spurts of endorphins.

I started monitoring my time using screens, especially paying attention to when and why I reached for my phone. It was shocking to see the amount of time I wasted per day. I thought I was seeing and experiencing more through my screen, but the truth was, I was missing everything.

Screen addiction is a global issue affecting millions. Study after study prove how excessive screen time is horrible for human beings mentally, emotionally, socially, and physically. Some even suggests that excessive smartphone use can lead to "brain rot.” It’s not just drugs or traumatic head injuries affecting humans’ attention spans, focus, and cognitive functions. It’s smartphones making humans dumb.

On my deathbed, I bet I’m going to think, “I sent 100,000 memes in my lifetime,” or “Damn! If only I had gotten to Level 400 on Candy Crush!” or “I watched every sitcom that aired during my lifetime” or “I went viral in 2017.”

The hell I am.

I’m going to wish I had more time with the people I ignored while I was “too busy” in a digital world. Nothing but a mindless zombie pressing buttons that make me smile or get angry. Either way, I’m glued to the screen.

Research shows that reducing time on smartphones (and screens) has positive benefits on mental health, cognitive function and attention. Because when people are mindlessly scrolling or consuming, most replace those activities with healthy habits. And these habits are healthy because they all include not wasting time on meaningless shit in virtual reality.

Look, I understand screens and technology aren’t all bad. Obviously. But the way I use my pocket tech and watch my shows, it’s hard to imagine there are people worse than me. The screens in our are designed to be addictive. Like another post. Send another meme. Watch another show. Listen to another screen. Make another bet. Keep engaging.

Most of us are addicted to our screens. Problem is, most of us won’t realize it until it’s too late.