You may accept your entertainment addiction. You may believe that since it is entertainment that it is okay. You may be an addict.
You May Have An Entertainment Addiction
Do you have an entertainment addiction? Let’s take a short quiz to see.
- Do you make sure you have your phone on you at all times?
- Do you look at your phone while you are in line?
- Do you look at your phone in the bathroom?
- Do you look at your phone when you are having a conversation with someone?
- Do you look at your phone at the table while you eat?
- Do you find yourself checking your phone at an appointment?
- Do you look at your phone when you are going to bed?
- Do you look at your phone immediately when you wake up?
- Do you find yourself looking at your phone even while you are driving?
- Are you endlessly scrolling through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)?
- Do you have dozens of apps on your phone?
- Do you have dozens of apps on your computer?
- Do you find yourself wondering where your day often went?
- Do you go to the movie theater?
- Do you go to the mall?
- Do you visit shops and stores that look interesting?
- Do you window shop?
- Do you pay hundreds, possibly even thousands of dollars, to attend concerts?
- Do you pay someone to deliver your groceries from InstaCart?
- Do you pay a delivery driver to bring you food from a restaurant on Grubhub, DoorDash, or Uber Eats?
- Do you go out to eat?
- Do you go out to the bar or coffee shop for a drink(s)?
- Do you pay for cable?
- Do you pay for streaming video services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube Premium)?
- Do you pay to avoid advertisements with music services (Hulu, Spotify, and premium radio stations)?
If you answered “Yes” to more than half of these questions, you may have an entertainment addiction.
[bctt tweet=”You may be afraid of boredom. You may be terrified of silence. You may be unable to enjoy your own company. ” username=”@secure_single”]
Entertainment Is A Real Addiction
You may be thinking to yourself, “I enjoy it! Entertainment is fun, and there is nothing wrong with it.” What about food, social media, and entertainment? But it would help if you learned to balance it. Your addiction to entertainment is a concern.
You can have food, social media, and entertainment in your life. You can manage each of these by practicing self-control. You can start to manage them in smaller portions. But first, you must work to get rid of your addiction.
7 Signs Of Entertainment Addiction
1. Touching your phone 2,617 times a day is the first sign.
2. You are unlocking your phone 80 times per day.
3. Obsessive thoughts and actions.
a. You worry that you will miss an important email, call, or post.
b. You regularly check your device because you think you will miss a critical message.
4. Disregard the harm caused.
a. How much money has your entertainment addiction cost you?
b. How much time have you wasted on entertainment?
c. How much does your addiction affect those around you? You have probably seen people talking and one person taking out their phone in the middle. They then look at their phone, not the person they are conversing with. You may also find yourself watching the latest Netflix show so that you can talk about it with your friends.
d. How is this taking away the time from others around you? You may ask people to watch a show they are not interested in.
5. Loss of Control
a. You think you can’t get rid of your phone, cable, or Internet or cancel a premium subscription to save money.
b. When you go on a social media detox, you find yourself returning to your favorite social media platform within a week (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).
6. You deny your addiction.
a. “I need my fun.”
b. “I work hard, so I need time to relax.”
7. You are an addict.
1. You are afraid to admit it.
2. You don’t want to accept it.
3. You have legitimized your addiction to control you.
You may think an entertainment addiction is acceptable because your friends do it. You use it as a way to escape from reality. That is the same excuse drug addicts and alcoholics give for their addiction.
Entertainment is no different from drugs.
What Has Your Entertainment Addiction Cost You?
Your entertainment addiction has cost you your hard-earned money, valuable time, and vital attention. The saddest part is that you have robbed yourself blind. You thought it was all in good fun too.
Calculate For Yourself
Go back over your last week or keep track starting this week. You can calculate and track your time on entertainment and social media. You have directed your attention to entertainment instead of being productive. The result you get at the end of your week will surprise you.
Trade Comfort For Being Exceptional
Most people say they can’t do something because they don’t want to leave their comfort zone. Even when what’s comfortable is a trap. People don’t want to do something different because they are afraid to try something new. People are fearful of failure. They are so scared of having to deal with haters and trolls.
10 Strategies You Can Implement To Improve Yourself
1. You must eliminate the comforts of everyday life if you want to live an extraordinary life. Everything costs you something: time, energy, attention, income, focus, and money.
2. You can rid yourself of negative influences. A negative impact can be toxic when comparing yourself to your favorite influencer.
3. You can dedicate your valuable time, energy, attention, income, focus, and money to building something more significant than you. Something that can give your life a greater purpose. Something that will give your life meaning. A project that you will never regret.
4. You must face your problems, issues, and emotions directly instead of ignoring them. It would help if you dealt with the horrible things that happened to you in your past.
5. You must take care of your body. You can enjoy a guilty pleasure here or there, whatever it may be. But you can’t overindulge in that pleasure. It would help if you learned to moderate your addictions and vices. You can find ways to improve your health.
6. You can start to improve your mind. You can learn from people who challenge you, so you must dive deeper to learn more about a topic. You can find these people online today by listening to podcasts and on YouTube who makes content that improves your life that is merely not entertainment.
7. You can learn the basics of money management. You need to understand the basics of budgeting. You need to know how much money you have coming in. You must know how much money you have going out.
8. You need to develop good habits. You must know why you have your current habits. You are the one who developed your current habits. You can break those habits and make new, better habits.
9. You need to make better choices. You can learn to make better choices. That includes how you spend your time. You can decide to be productive instead of entertaining yourself.
10. You must accept self-responsibility. Our culture does not want people to accept self-responsibility. Society wants people to be dependent upon the system. When you practice self-discipline and take responsibility for your actions, you will slowly begin to see your life improve. You will be able to do things you once thought impossible.
Conclusion
Entertainment is a real addiction. It is an acceptable addiction in the eyes of many people. Yet, it is sucking your valuable time, attention, and focus away from you. You could be using the time you watch Netflix or scroll through Facebook to work on yourself. You could make something of yourself.
