I have done otherworldly things in my dreams. I have flown over buildings, collapsed into my subatomic parts while still remaining sentient, timeline jumped and observed the earth’s rotating axis from the seat of the stars, but you know what I haven’t dreamed?
My fucking smartphone.
I cannot recall a single dream in which I am looking at my hand scrolling through social media; not a ping or message bubble.
There are jingles from toy advertisements from the 90s I can retrieve from my long-term memory. There are childhood cartoon characters that have entered my dreams. There are smells that instantly take me back to the immigration line at Montego Bay airport 20 years ago. There are albums that bring me back to a road trip skirting round the bends of a rocky cliffs edge with my heart in my shoes.
But yet…the thing we supposedly do the most is nowhere to be seen in my dream space? At least, not to my recollection.
Is this not odd to you?
For context, I am a vivid dreamer and I keep a dream diary. I limit my time on the apps now, because I am convinced that in a few years there will be a couple of additional disorders spurred by social media use added to the DSM-5, ranging in severity, but this hasn’t always been the case for me. My use of hydrating eye drops is probably due to the hours I would spend on Tik Tok doomscrolling.
So, what is that about? Do you relate? Really think about it. Am I thinking too deeply into this? I don’t think I am.
There is something here around reality, consciousness and digital vs physical desensitization.
I will unpack properly in another newsletter when I have the room, so stay tuned.
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