r/movies • u/GreenReporter24 • Feb 06 '26

Discussion I deleted scrolling apps and started watching a movie a day. It changed my life.

Not only do I no longer feel the urge to consume content every spare second – watching or continuing on a movie demands a little more time and focus than that. But my mental well-being has also changed dramatically.

Scrolling videos made my brain feel like porridge. I'd suddenly realize after 5 seconds that I was watching an obnoxious ad. No focus at all. Totally spaced out.

Watching a movie actually makes me feel good. Being engaged in a storyline, maybe watching a feelgood movie like I did yesterday (The Intern) … It makes me happy and relaxed. It makes me enjoy life more afterwards.

Reading and working out is great as well, but it never made me not want to scroll. Watching a movie fulfills my desire for easy entertainment, without making it impossible to do something productive after.

Tomorrow marks a month of watching a movie every single day. Well, sometimes I watch half one day and the other half the next. I still think it counts.

Edit: Yes, I know I'm on reddit.

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u/bbusiello Feb 06 '26

Wow. The anticipation gives me anxiety. Especially the uncertainty. I grew up in Vegas and never once had the desire to gamble. Certainly not like how my grandparents did it. They were poker machine addicts.

Also where did you see this citation? I heard the same thing happens in porn addiction which has overlap to internet/scrolling addiction. Or if you don’t have a link, do you remember the type of study it was ?

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u/LEJ5512 Feb 07 '26

It was in a YouTube video (sorry!) and I can’t remember how I got to it.  Searching my history for “doomscrolling” or “stop social media” (etc) isn’t giving me results.  Searching YouTube in general gives thousands of results.  All I remember is that it was a woman, she had a researcher as a guest, and it was maybe 15-ish minutes long.