Dependent on scrolling. How to fight it?translated

Reader's Question:

I am constantly stuck in the internet. Only when I decide to check messages (notifications don't come through), endless scrolling begins. It devours all free time. At work, I do not get distracted by my phone, on the road I read, including spiritual texts. But at home, it is hard for me to concentrate and study, with an upcoming exam looming ahead. How can I fight this? What should I understand so that the struggle is effective? I know it consumes time, but it is extremely difficult to detach myself.

Father's Answer:

Venerable Father Victor Nikishov

May God bless you!

You have already taken the first and important step—stopped looking for an external cause and acknowledged that this is your own choice, albeit one that has become a habit. At work and on the road, it does not hinder you, so the issue is not with an unbreakable addiction but in allowing yourself to rest in this manner at home. Call it by its name: dependence on endless scrolling is a form of entertainment masquerading as "checking messages." As Venerable John of the Ladder says: "A bad habit is something that, through long-term practice, has entered the soul and become like a natural property of it." Start with this thought: you are fighting not with your phone, but with an entrenched habit that...