Masuk Free Press

2:30 p.m.

Like most other weekdays, I walk through my front door, dropping my bag onto the floor and collapsing onto the couch, already reaching for my phone before I even take my shoes off. After a long day of classes mixed with tests and constant movement, I tell myself I deserve a break. Unfortunately for me, that break looks like opening TikTok and letting the hours slip by without thinking.

What feels like just a few minutes quickly turns into a few hours. Video after video blurs together, and before I know it, it’s past 7 p.m. My homework is untouched, my motivation is gone and somehow, I feel just as tired, if not more, than when I first got home. Scrolling was just so easy, it didn’t require any effort and after a stressful day, that’s exactly what I thought I needed. But over time, it became clear that this kind of rest wasn’t actually helping me at all.

“My doomscrolling happens almost every day and it’s especially bad right after RCA and right before I go to bed,” said senior Derek Heffelfinger. “I don’t even know how it happens, but all of a sudden my time is just gone.”

One day, instead of immediately reaching for my phone, I decided to put my time and energy into something I could actually find fulfilling. I wanted to stop defaulting to scrolling and start doing things that felt more intentional, things I actually enjoyed but never made time for.

This meant picking up hobbies again. Whether it was baking a sweet treat to bring to school the next day for my friends, doing small crafts or just creating something with my hands, I started replacing that automatic habit of going on my phone with something more meaningful. 

“I always see baking recipes on my TikTok or Instagram reels that I want to try,” said Mayar Etaeib. “I usually just keep scrolling through my feed instead of actually baking anything, though.”

That hesitation is something a lot of people can relate to, watching others create things without ever trying it themselves. However, recently, that pattern has started to shift. On TikTok, especially, picking up hobbies has become more popular, with trends encouraging people to go and try something new.

Bedazzling, in particular, has become a huge trend with everyone decorating makeup containers, phone cases, and even things like books. 

“I just recently got into bedazzling after seeing it all over my for you page,” said senior Mikaila Salustri. “It’s actually a lot more calming than I thought it would be, and it’s just really fun to be doing something other than going on my phone. Plus, it makes everything so much cuter.”

Beyond just recent trends, there’s something deeper that comes with picking up hobbies again. Unlike scrolling, which often leaves time feeling wasted or forgotten, hobbies give that time a sense of purpose. Even something as simple as making a bracelet, sketching in a notebook or trying a new recipe can make a difference. Instead of finishing the day wondering where time went, there’s something to show for it, something tangible that reflects how time was spent. 

Hobbies don’t have to be time-consuming or complicated to be meaningful. Students can pick up things like crocheting, making fun room decor like garlands or fabric flags with their names on them, watercolor painting or creating DIY keychains. Even simple crafts like these allow us to step away from constant stimulation and slow down. They create space to think, to focus and to reset in a way that scrolling never does.

“Whenever I have the free time, I try to crochet things like tops or hats that I could wear,” said senior Erin Ronaghan. “While it wasn’t the easiest thing to do at first, learning how to do it taught me a lot of patience that I don’t think I had before.”

And so at 2:30 p.m. I still walk through my front door, and I still fling my backpack onto the floor, but instead of reaching for my phone, I’m eager to try something new, deliberately choosing how to spend my time. Whether it’s baking something small or bedazzling my chapstick, I’ve learned that even a little bit of intention can change how the rest of my day feels. I’ve started choosing what I love and putting myself first, the kind of break that actually feels well deserved.