I realized I'm more dependent on AI than I am on my phone

I've been trying to reduce screen time for a while now, got my phone usage down to like 2-3 hours a day. But then I noticed something weird.

Every time I had a question, needed to solve a problem, or even just wanted to think through something, I immediately opened ChatGPT or Claude. I wasn't scrolling social media anymore, but I also wasn't thinking for myself.

It hit me that I replaced one dependency with another. Instead of doom scrolling TikTok, I was doom prompting AI. Same dopamine loop, just felt more "productive" so I didn't see it as a problem.

The scary part is nobody talks about this. Everyone's focused on phone addiction and social media, but AI dependency is way more subtle. You feel like you're being productive, learning, getting work done. But you're still outsourcing your brain to a screen.

Has anyone else noticed this? How do you balance using AI as a tool without letting it replace actual thinking?