Most popular ways to waste time
People have a strong desire to live as if they were everlasting, wasting their time performing worthless activities and spending years with activities to keep themselves occupied. But that is not the case, and although those who have reached the age of 90 may already have the appearance of having lived a lengthy life, in reality, they have only lived 5,000 weeks. When you take out the years when you are an ignorant child, and the years you are compelled to spend attempting to earn a living, you are left with very little time that may be used successfully. If you subtract these years from the average life expectancy, you will have little time left.
So what are we wasting these precious years on? On completely meaningless things, and this is one of the few things that unites humankind. Here are the most popular ways of wasting time.
1. Watching movies and TV shows for the hundredth time
The current situation with many people’s obsession with soap operas can be called a time-wasting pandemic. Every month, dozens of new soap operas come out, which give nothing but weak emotions. But let’s not be snobs because emotion is also a benefit, which means that watching movies and TV series cannot be called a waste of time, at least for the first time.
Watching movies and TV series the second and subsequent times is another matter. You already know all the plot moves and almost learned by heart the characters’ remarks, but for some reason, you turn on the episode again and sit in front of the TV or smartphone, spending at least half an hour of free time on it. We’re not talking about randomly turning on a show on TV here; we’re talking about making a conscious choice.
2. Scrolling through social media
Probably the most popular way to waste time these days because social networks today don’t provide anything useful. True, to be fair, they can teach you something new, but most people use them to scroll through the feed and see what others have, laugh from funny pictures, dream about riding around the world like that, and so on.
However, meaningful scrolling still cannot fully be called a waste of time. It’s different when it’s not meaningful, and you just scroll the feed without any emotion to find something that catches your eye, and so on, minute by minute.
3. Watching meaningless videos
Especially short videos from popular social networks. They’re like sunflower seeds: you pop one in your mouth, and that’s it, here we go. You switch from one video to another, then you get recommendations with similar content, and then you wake up an hour later and realize that you’re watching someone grilling a burger or showing you how to make money on bets and which bookmaker to choose.
Of course, videos with useful content like teaching new disciplines don’t fall into this category. Still, everything else can be put into this category, even videos in the science-pop genre. The main criterion for meaninglessness is the unconscious choice of content when you are literally drifting with the flow. In this case, you can really call it wasting your time.
4. Filling your cart on online shopping sites
Most people on this planet can’t afford serious spending. By serious, we mean not only cars and premium watches but also the stale purchase of a gaming computer. Since there is no money, but there is a dream, people, often not realizing that only create the illusion of satisfying desires, spend a lot of time on the sites of technology, clothing and other online stores, collecting in the basket as much as possible favourite products allegedly for later. This is so that later they don’t have to look for these things again and go straight to making a purchase.
Later, when the cart is full and looking at the amount, people usually close the site until better times. In the end, not a single dollar is spent, but the time lost on pointless “purchases” is irretrievable.
5. Stuck in the bathroom or toilet
Don’t think that you’re the only one who likes to sit in the bathroom or toilet with your smartphone and read forums or watch memes. If technology isn’t handy, there’s always air freshener, a pack of toilet paper and any other “literature.” You can stare at the door or ceiling as a last resort.
Why do people do that? In the toilet and bathroom, we are most relaxed; we feel comfortable and safe and do not want to go out into this mortal world from their makeshift shelter for as long as possible. So we sit in these shelters, senselessly shortening the time until our feet or skin swells in the water.
6. Online games with a focus on grinding
The term “grind” refers to a strategy used in video games that involves performing actions in a manner that is both routine and risk-free to accrue benefits. The term “to the grind” can apply to various activities, such as clearing out areas that include enemies with low health. It is true that defeating a single powerful boss and quickly gaining a level is the quickest way to advance. Still, it is also true that clearing out a large number of low-level enemies will result in the same level increase, with the only difference being that it will take a few hours longer.
One of the most common and popular ways to spend time these days is to grind in online games. Some players will sit in their chairs for the twenty-four hours it takes to play a game to rack up as much experience and virtual currency as possible.
7. Reading similar articles
Think you’re not wasting your time right now? Then think about it, what did this article, with its list of popular ways to waste your time, give you, other than wasting that very time? Yes, you learned that you’re not alone, but it did you no good. But we can congratulate ourselves on the fact that another person has fallen into this trap and will continue to read our articles, most of which are certainly helpful. Nevertheless, not this one.
