How to waste time during COVID-19

Its been about 2 months since we’ve been under physical lockdown. Physical lockdown in Texas means staying put in your house or apartment, roaming around the neighbourhood (with or without a mask) and hanging out at CVS or HEB for hours together to get essential items.

Anyways, while the whole world is trying to figure out ways to best utilise this time by learning new activites or picking up old hobbies, here I am making the most of my Saturday night — spending 3 hours browsing random stuff on YouTube. Stuff that I have no clue about, stuff that scares the hell out of me. Yet, at 11pm, I start wondering what it is that I am going to watch tonight, just because its a Saturday night and I can’t let it go to waste by sleeping.

At this point in the night, I have lost all interest in learning. I am just here to get a sugar rush. So, I pick a video that shows up on the feed from Mira Nair (a whole different story — I watched Monsoon Wedding the night before!). I watch one of her interviews, and learn nothing really of use to me in my daily and immediate life. Yet, another one of her interviews shows up in the feed and I click on that, you know, just because.

One thing leads to another, and within 120 mins, I have no idea how I get to a video about a baby elephant throwing a tantrum! YouTube algorithm, seriously? I mean a guy aims better than this! Anyway, because I have nothing to do, I watch this video as well just because it sounds cute, and boom! Now I have a whole bunch of cute animal videos lined up for me to explore!

This is where my inner voice tells me to listen to itself. So far, I had been conveniently ignoring any and all signs from it, but after spending a solid 3 hours on a sugar rush, I was finally collapsing.

Thank God for the collapse because that’s when I stopped wandering aimlessly and started writing the first article of my life on a blog!