Five More Minutes

It was an ordinary evening. Around eleven, I was in bed, the lights off, ready to sleep. Just five more minutes on TikTok, I told myself. One video, then another, then another – the kind of scrolling where your thumb moves on its own. When I finally looked at the clock again, it was almost one in the morning.

It wasn't the first time. Somewhere along the way, my phone had become the first thing I reached for in the morning and the last thing I let go of at night. At school I was tired more often than not, and homework took twice the effort it should have. And still, some part of me was convinced that if I put the phone down, I would miss something important happening online.

The moment that changed things wasn't dramatic. It was simply the realisation, one night, that I was spending more time watching other people's lives than living my own. Not because the internet is bad – I use it to learn, to talk to my friends, to relax. The problem was never the internet. The problem was that there was no balance.

So now I try to put the phone away at least half an hour before bed. I don't always manage it. But on the nights I do, I sleep better and wake up feeling rested. Digital life is part of my life. I just don't want it to own every moment of my day.