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Why your real screen time is higher than you think

2026-10-22 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:16 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness · mode: Reflection and life update

In a public-speaking practice on the topic Gen Z, asked what his screen time would look like if it counted daydreaming, Ali says we constantly think about the future, which he links to anxiety, and that staying in the present moment is one of life's real challenges.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Public speaking practice: the lever picks screen time that counts daydreaming

  • ★ Ali does public speaking practice on the topic Gen Z, which he says he is not part of; the lever gives him the question of what his screen time would look like if it counted daydreaming. — 00:00:00

00:00:22 — Thinking about the future, anxiety and staying in the present

  • ★★★ Ali thinks one of the issues with life is that we are constantly thinking about the future, which he sees as the reason for the anxiety epidemic, because anxiety is a worry about the future. — 00:00:22
  • ★★ Ali says, as a massive oversimplification, that depression is an over-fixation on the past and anxiety an over-fixation on the future. (hedged) — 00:00:22
  • ★ Ali says we all run on a hamster wheel just to stay in the same place, worried about our careers, our lives, AI and finding the right partner, and Gen Z perhaps also about whether to have kids. — 00:00:22
  • ★★★ Ali thinks our screen time would be a lot higher if it counted daydreaming, thinking about the future, and that one of life's real challenges is learning to stay in the present moment rather than fixating on the future. — 00:01:02

Mentioned

Central: Gen Z

Also: depression

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