12 am.
I probably need to sleep but as always, I need at least an hour on my phone. Tik Tok or Instagram would be a great distraction for whatever stress I went through today, time to relax. It is a place for me to ignore my life and view other’s. I laid in bed, what was supposed to be 1 hour ended up being 2. I am mostly on Instagram; I cannot even remember how many videos I’ve skipped or watched. I learnt something new, like how to clean your AC unit, I was excited, but I knew all the information I learn will disappear by the morning. And whatever I thought I processed is just being stored in my brain as non-essential. I watched endless videos of trending songs. How to dress, people’s favorite places to hike, someone talking about how big and strong NFL players are. As always, came across videos that try to encourage me to buy property or bitcoin. Someone cleaning their car using various products that I will probably never own. Rihanna collaborated with Heinz ketchup for a lip gloss “is it ketchup or lip gloss?”. Instagram makes renovating homes seem simple. We collect information worth hours in just under 15 seconds. This is not the age of information; I watched the screen until my eyes closed shut.
Cats.
I decided it would be a good idea to step outside around 8pm. Not to a park, because the nearest area with green is 30 minutes away and man-made. I am visiting Qatar for the summer, a desert and one of the hottest countries in the world. The current temperature ranges from 91 (at night) to 111 Fahrenheit. Therefore, I spent it in my backyard but couldn’t last for more than 11 minutes without feeling like I was in a sauna. Nonetheless I made it just past 11 minutes, I stared at the dead flowers my mom planted in December. I watched stray cats looking for corners to cool off, some were near the neighbor’s windows, or under cars. Even though my body was in agony, my brain felt at ease. Everything moved slow and my brain did not feel rushed to over think and go through different emotions in the span of a second.
Tik Tok, could take me on a rollercoaster of emotions. Still, me time meant that I must be on my phone. And being on my phone is great, right? I am always learning from people through their 15 second videos. However, after the 15 seconds I would completely forget what the previous video was about, but at least I could save it for when I need it. Nonetheless, reading chapter 7 am was draining, my brain was unable to process all the events in variant programs. This made me grasp that if I can not read the chaos of Television, “how am I able to process the information on my phone?”. I had done more thinking in 11 minutes outside than I have over the 1 hour on my phone.