Describe An activity that wastes your time

One activity that I genuinely feel wastes a staggering amount of my time is mindlessly scrolling through short-form video platforms, mainly TikTok’s Chinese counterpart Douyin, on weekday evenings right after dinner. I usually do it when I flop onto the sofa after a full day of lectures and assignment work, initially telling myself I’ll just take a 5-minute mental break. The reason I keep returning to it is that it’s a low-effort way to unwind — the platform’s algorithm feeds me tailored content, from cute cat clips to street food reels and travel snippets, that requires zero critical thinking. However, it’s a massive time sink because I almost always lose track of time, ending up scrolling for 1.5 to 2 hours instead of the 5 minutes I promised myself. I’d originally planned to use that window to practise IELTS speaking or read a non-fiction book, but I end up going to bed feeling guilty and unaccomplished. Worse still, the constant barrage of 15-second clips has gradually eroded my attention span, making it harder to focus on long-form content for more than 20 minutes at a stretch.