After Donald Trump’s second election, I realised the insidious hold my phone had over my life. So I turned to something I’d loved in childhood to better occupy my attention
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fter a long day of looking at screens for work, I used to go to bed and stare at my phone until I fell asleep. When not doomscrolling news headlines, I’d crash out to hateful comments on social media or revisit workplace dramas via mobile versions of Teams and Slack. I was always plugged in.
It was a ritual that would start well before bedtime. As the evening wound down, I’d surf algorithms for hours on end, barely paying attention to whatever television programme was on in the background, only half-listening to conversations around me. Whether it was the incessantly dystopian news cycle, toxic opinions on pop culture, or posts railing against obtuse LinkedIn speak, there was always another online scab to pick.
When sleep did arrive, it would be restless and anxiety-ridden. With my brain swimming with fears of various apocalypses and the vitriol of online agitators, it’s no wonder my dreams were full of the same. After one feverish night too many, I realised that I had to make a change. In a quest to shrug off my phone’s insidious hold, I began to search for something that would better occupy my attention. Books seemed like the natural solution, and I quickly turned to comics.
