I recently took a break from the internet, and coming back was a shock to the system. If you haven’t browsed for a while, let me tell you: the modern web is a dumpster fire. What used to be a tool for information has turned into a digital gauntlet. Between the auto-playing videos, the cookie pop-ups that feel like legal contracts, and headlines that tell you absolutely nothing about the actual story, the internet has become, quite frankly, unusable garbage.
We don’t realize it, but every Breaking News alert and every infinite scroll is taxing our brains. When I’m on a news portal, I’m not reading; I’m skimming. I’m dodging ads like I’m in an obstacle course. My attention span is shot, and my anxiety spikes before I’ve even finished the first paragraph.
Research is starting to catch up to what we all feel: this constant digital noise damages our focus and clouds our mental clarity. It’s cognitive fog in real-time.
I’m done with the garbage. I’ve decided to trade the infinite scroll for something finite, tactile, and dare I say civilized.
Instead of 100 frantic updates, I’m choosing one beautifully curated magazine a week The Guardian Weekly). It gives me the big picture without the headache. For my daily fix, I’m going back to the classic daily, occasionally (Népszava, as I am from Hungary). No pop-ups, no you won’t believe what happened clickbait – just ink, paper, and actual journalism.
The best part about a newspaper? It ends. When you finish the last page of The Guardian Weekly or Népszava, you are done for the day. There is no algorithm whispering that there’s more to see. You close the paper, you put it down, and you return to the real world with a clear head.
In 2026, being informed shouldn’t mean being exhausted. If the internet is garbage, maybe the smartest thing we can do is just stop looking at it.