A great many spiritual practices teach us that in order to experience that very feeling of happiness, we need to be able to be “in the moment” — and to stay in that state for as long as possible.
For example, when you’re drinking coffee, you can notice its strong aroma, slowly sink into its deep taste, comfortably sitting somewhere in a soft chair and thinking only about whether the coffee has cooled down enough or is still slightly burning.
That is when you are in the moment, and that is when you can feel pleasure.
It is brief, yes — it may last only a few minutes. But many such short episodes can accumulate throughout the day, and they all influence the stability of the psyche and the feeling that life is, in fact, a pleasant thing.

Endless anxiety and restlessness produced by social media pull us out of the here and now.
We are constantly forced to switch our attention to direct messages, messengers, posts, comments, likes, replies, news, messages to parents, employers, lovers. And at that point, priorities no longer matter.
This anxiety pulls you in like a vortex.
If you have started replying, checking, reading, watching — you are already there, and you will not return to the “moment.” Because to do so, you will once again have to leave it.

The way we get distracted happens unnoticed, but this is exactly how a habit is formed.
And now, even while on vacation, during dinner with friends, or among the closest people gathered opposite a fireplace, your hand automatically reaches for the phone.
Because supposedly anxiety arises from not having checked for a while what is happening in the world.

In reality, anxiety is not formed because of the fear of missing current events.
Anxiety is directly related to the volume of updates on social media.
They appear at high speed, and new content emerges so quickly and in such quantities that you will never be able to keep up with all of it.
This is what creates the overwhelming desire to catch up and not miss out.
But that is precisely what is impossible.

What is very possible, however, is to unlearn how to be in the “here and now.”
And the solution is not to delete all social networks and messengers.
The solution is to learn how to manage them, being aware of what is happening.