Time That Keeps Growing
Scrolling is strangely timeless. Minutes lose their weight — they disappear, dissolve, leave no trace.
When we finally lift our eyes from the screen, it often turns out that far more time has passed than we expected.
Research shows that intensive use of social media is linked to lower mood and a stronger sense of loneliness.
Even then — and sometimes especially then — when these platforms are meant to connect us with others. This is not a story about “bad social media.” Rather, it’s about the fact that the human nervous system did not evolve for constant comparison, perpetual visibility, and continuous readiness for stimulation.
While we scroll, time beyond the screen does not stand still. Plants grow. Bodies breathe. The world changes — without our attention.
Life does not wait for us to put the phone down.
The illustrations you’re looking at are not an accusation. They are a record of suspension — moments in which we are simultaneously “here” and “elsewhere.”
Between what is alive and growing, and what is flat, bright, and untouchable.
Maybe it’s not about stopping looking at the screen.
Maybe it’s about occasionally looking beside it — and noticing what has managed to grow in the meantime.
Project note
This is an original artistic project developed and executed by me. Digital illustration created in Procreate on iPad Pro.
