Chronic Screen Time

My whole life, I have grown up looking at screens. I remember my childhood being filled with them; I always watched cartoons, I played tons of video games, and I owned a Nintendo DSi and Game Boy. I can't really remember periods of my life that didn't include access to screens, except when I was grounded.

My exposure to screens in my adult life has been largely the same, if not worse.

Probably worse.

Up until recently, I awoke to the alarm on my phone, then I immediately picked up my phone and scrolled anywhere from 5-20 minutes before I even got out of bed. Then I would cook breakfast, sit down in my living room, and eat my ol' reliable plate of eggs, greek yogurt, and a banana each morning. But not before putting an interesting YouTube video on the TV, of course.

Then I would go to work, in my car that has a screen to control music and navigation. Then I would sit at my desk, which requires me to look at computer screens all day.

Also, throughout the day, I would use my phone occasionally and scroll on it passively during breaks or lunch while I eat my food.

Then when I would get home, I'd usually play video games, which, if you could guess, is looking at more screens. If I went to the gym, I tracked my exercises on a logging app and looked at my Apple Watch throughout my workout to see my heart rate and other metrics.

After getting home, I'd wind down, make dinner, and scroll a bit (or a lot) on my phone in bed before falling asleep.

Mindlessly consuming content from the moment I open my eyes, to being the last thing I look at before going to bed.

Looking at this from an outside perspective, I can see the absurdity of this being the status quo. I remember looking at my screen time a few months back and was horrified to see the extent of my cell phone use alone — not even accounting for the devices I use at work, or my TV, or computer to play video games. I had also downloaded an app called Opal to help put restrictions on opening social media apps mindlessly throughout the day. The app had calculated that, if my screen time habits were to remain unchanged, I was projected to spend over 30 years of my life looking at my phone.

That fucking terrified me. And again, that's only considering my phone use, not other devices I use on an everyday basis.

In regards to this study, I would encourage you to reflect on your technology usage, and evaluate if there are any patterns that you can recognize in relation to your mood and the amount of time you spend looking at screens. I believe that it can be incredibly insightful.

Out of curiosity, I have looked a fair bit into the relation between excessive screen time and depression. There's an alarming number of studies that have been conducted in recent years linking social media usage and screen time to mental health issues. One of the most troubling studies I encountered found a significant association between daily screen time and moderate to severe depression in US adults. Consider this when you find yourself consistently doomscrolling for weeks on end, especially if you wonder why you're feeling off.

Speaking of that, I have recognized that days that I spend extensively indoors (and typically extensively using technology) always result in a drop in my mood and energy levels. Over recent months I have realized that I had developed a phone addiction, where I would compulsively check my notifications, particularly in the evenings, when I did not have much going on. I would find myself picking my phone up again and again, not seeing any notifications but searching for them.

Suffice to say, I needed to lock in. Below are a few changes that I have made in efforts to reduce my screen time:

1. I started placing my phone across my room to prevent me from scrolling in bed in the morning and at night. I have found this one simple change to be one of the most effective methods of reducing my screen time, and it gives me hours of time back a week cumulatively. I would give it a shot if you find yourself consistently doomscrolling in the morning or night.

2. I stopped watching videos while I eat. I've heard numerous arguments for why you shouldn't look at screens while eating, but the one that I found most convincing was the idea of reinforcing the expectation of a screen each time you eat. If you constantly eat while watching content, you're essentially rewiring yourself to expect a screen each time you sit down to eat. It can make eating without a screen feel strange or uncomfortable. That just sounds disturbing to me, so...

3. I started using Opal. Aforementioned above, Opal has been a very good tool for me to reduce the amount of time I was spending on social media. The app essentially allows you to customize what apps you are able to use and when. If you try to open a restricted app during a time period you set, it won't open the app and will instead display a motivational quote. This app has been a game-changer for me, and I would highly recommend it if you are trying to also cut down on your phone use.

4. I question my passive phone use when I am aware of it. I think it is easy to pick up your phone and get lost in the endless streams of content — however, if I catch myself idly pick up my phone during the day, I question what it is that I believe will be achieved when I pick up my phone. Did I pick up my phone to do something important? To set a reminder? Catch up with somebody? If I picked up my phone because I am bored, then I should seek alternative methods to alleviating my boredom, not scroll for an undetermined amount of time.

If you read this hoping to also mitigate your excessive screen time, I hope this post was insightful for you. I suppose I'm not doing you any favors because you're literally staring at a screen to read this right now. I suppose I didn't do myself a favor starting this site, because I've essentially obliged to staring at screens to write posts weekly.

Damn.

In any case, I hope you found this insightful.

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson