Alexei Janssen

Ex Royal Marines/Navy/SF learning & performance coach. Now helping people recover from the sacrifices they made. Building RecoverFromTheWeb. Father to 3 Boys.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Genuine question — where does your job live? Most people's work, social connections, and half their admin is on that rectangle. Shaming the tool doesn't help when you can't put it down without losing your livelihood. The real question isn't "less screen" — it's "what are you doing while you're on it?"

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

@mralexthomas Agree with the walk. The "get off your phone" bit is harder than it sounds though — most people's jobs, social lives, and kids' school comms all live on that thing. You can't just leave. The real skill is noticing when the walk in your hand replaced the walk outside.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

@newstart_2024 This is the bit people miss — it's not the content, it's the nervous system learning what "normal stimulation" looks like. Wire it early and everything slower feels broken. The same thing happened to adults too. We just had a baseline to compare it to. Kids don't.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

@Lush_Beauty1 The phone recalibrated what "long" means. Two hours of a film feels like discipline now — when really it's just... sitting still and paying attention to one thing. That used to be the default.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The phone escape is the one worth watching here.

Because it's not a distraction — it's your nervous system finding the fastest way to regulate. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Breathing slows. Jaw unclenches. For a minute you're not in the room.

The problem isn't the phone. It's that your body needs it to feel safe.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Screen time is the sleeper on this list.

Because the phone isn't a vice you can moderate. It's where your job lives, your kid's school communicates, your social life exists.

You can't treat it like nicotine when opting out means missing a work email. It's not "I'm built different." It's "I literally can't put this down."

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The separation isn't from other people though. It's from yourself.

You're scrolling someone else's party photos because your nervous system is in scanning mode. It's not loneliness — it's a body stuck in low-grade surveillance.

Put the phone down and the first thing you'll notice isn't people. It's quiet.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Real talk though — "put your phone down" only works if your phone isn't also where your job lives, your kids' school communicates, and your friendships exist.

The phone isn't the problem. It's that everything important is inside it.

The question isn't down or up. It's: am I using this right now, or is it using me?

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The purpose is there. The problem is the phone isn't optional — your job lives on it, your social life, your kids' school.

"Put it down" assumes you can. Most people can't. Not for long.

The better question: can you notice what the screen does to your breathing while you hold it?

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Nobody's coming to save you from your screen.

Good.

You were never in danger. You were just asleep.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Electric media abolished distance. Great.

Now your nervous system responds to events 6,000 miles away as though they're in your kitchen.

That's not information. That's a stress disorder.

Wrote more about this: https://t.co/Y5vtmhl8LV

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

"You're always on your phone" is what people who are always on their phone say to other people to make themselves feel just a tiny bit better.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The dopamine framing is half the picture.

The other half is your nervous system. Shallow breathing, tight jaw, elevated cortisol — all happening before you even decide to scroll.

Your body enters the loop before your brain does.

Discipline doesn't fix a hijacked nervous system. Noticing does.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The observation is real but here's the catch — everyone reading this thread just absorbed it on the same device doing the damage.

Knowing the science doesn't change the biology.

Your breathing went shallow while you scrolled through these words.

That gap between knowing and noticing is where the medium lives.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

@tervoooo The diagnosis is coming. But the body isn't waiting for the DSM. Shallow breathing, elevated cortisol, fragmented sleep — the downstream effects are already measurable. Naming it won't fix it. Noticing what the medium does to your physiology might.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

This is me pushing an idea at you.

And while i'm doing that your own ideas got trodden on.. again.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

Tools that use you, are the biggest threat to your personal sovereignty.

Time to work it out how this all works.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The "unplug" advice is kind, but here's the catch — most people's work, social life, and parenting all run through the same screen that's exhausting them.

You can't unplug from something your life depends on. What you can do is notice the moment your breathing changes when you pick up your phone. That noticing is the first crack in the cycle.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

@Liminal1988 Everyone who read this post was scrolling when they found it.

The scroll isn't the problem. Not noticing what it does to your breathing, your posture, your jaw — that's the problem.

You can't quit something your whole life runs on. But you can start noticing.

[Alexei Janssen @alexeijanssen]

The margins in your life, are the gaps between you sleeping and you being online.

How big is your morning margin?

How big is your evening margin?