Time spent watching other people’s lives is time you didn’t spend on your own.

Watching is a nearly perfect substitute for doing, which is exactly the problem. It delivers some of the feeling of travelling, competing or being close to people, while using up the hours those things would have needed. Nothing is wrong with watching. It simply is not neutral, because the hours are the same hours.

Notice who you watch most and ask what the real appeal is. Then take the smallest actual version of it this week: play the game badly, go to the nearby place, call a friend instead of reading about strangers. A small real version beats a big watched one.