When I switched from Twitter to Bluesky, I attempted to recreate the list of muted words I'd had. The purpose of the list was to filter out a lot of the over-the-top political content, the better to not scroll endlessly a feed of negativity. It worked reasonably well. And as before, I'd add in new names or terms to try and keep things controlled, and avoid whatever the new source of negativity was. Then January 20 rolled around, and it became impossible to keep the negativity out. So now, often as not, Bluesky is a quick scroll to determine whether there is something specifically new and worse or just the general background misery. I spend a lot less time on there (five minutes a day? ten?), and functionally never post.
My break occurred in 2016, but not with the election: it was the Michigan-Iowa football game. Michigan was ahead, but not by enough, and conditioned by years of fandom I knew it was going to end badly. Sure enough, the notifications kept hitting my screen and I laid in bed and watched my hopes collapse for the second time in less than a month.
The next day, I turned off all notifications on my phone, removed news apps and others that would send me updates on the world whether I wanted them or not. I have not added any back since.
Look, on some level my brain is cooked like everyone else's. But I read actively, watch movies as frequently (or more) than tv, which itself is a tiny slice of the day, probably the least I've ever done in my life, walk the dogs, take care of the house and the yard, and try to live a life outside screens. And while life and observation have taught me that in this respect I have more self-control than the average person,* I don't think any of these things are impossible; some of them aren't even difficult. You just have to want to do them.
But I do think there's also a matter of wanting the other things that are available to you. I'll read a book, but not any book and not at any time. Sometimes I want a light movie, sometimes a more substantive one. I ate my vegetables on culture a long time ago so there are a wide variety of things that are pleasurable now, and it's usually just a matter of picking one. And some of that comes down to situations: I know I will have such-and-such time available and I know what occupies my mind in the right way for the right period of time. Your time without screens is a loss if the replacement is nothing, but kids, it's a big, bright world out there, and there are lots of things you could do.
(Side note: it's true that I don't devote the time or attention that I did before to pretty much anything. But my day is very different: kids must be woken up and taken to school, meals planned and groceries purchased, dogs walked again, kids picked up, homework done, dinner cooked, bedtimes managed. There are no unbroken 8-hour streaks in my day anymore, so it's not surprising if my brain isn't doing what it did when I had those regularly.)
* I recognize this is a big part of the causal picture, and I don't mean to downplay it. But also: if I want to stop doing something, I stop doing it; if I want to start, I start. There's some window dressing around various situations--I form intentions that take a while to realize themselves, I dislike certain things I do, occasionally there's a second-order intention question about whether I really desire to do x or not-x--but the core of it is never more complicated than that.