Eesha's Early Excerpt #7: Reducing our Screentime
- Eesha Bellad
- Apr 12, 2021
- 3 min read
As our innovations grow and technology revolutionizes, our sanity follows it. The average person spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media in 2021. These are 2 hours of our lives that we will never get back. In a year it adds up to 876 hours spent on unproductive scrolling. In those 876 hours you could start or expand a business, learn a new language, etc. The possibilities are endless! Additionally in the recent edition of IT’S TIME WE FACE IT, I dwell on the toxicity of social media. With all of it’s harms, it is fair to conclude that reducing our screentime is paramount. Here are five tips on how we can do so:
Analyzing your screen time
It is important to understand where it is that your screentime is being spent on. What apps are the most consuming? At what time of the day do you find yourself glaring at the screen the most? These questions will allow you to visualize what obstacles you will be battling.
Setting control limits
On most smartphones, there are screentime controllers embedded in the phone. Take advantage of these by using the analysis of your screen time. If you find that you spend an hour on TikTok a day, set a goal to reduce this time to 10 minutes. Gradually decrease the “time limits” on the app to achieve this. Go slowly as this will never stick and become a tangible habit if it is done in one go.
No phone in the first and last hour of the day
Most people spend the first hour and last hour of their day on social media. This feeds to the majority of their screen time. To counteract, pick up a book instead or make the active effort to avoid scrolling. Additionally, downtime controls are significant factors in making a change. Avoiding your phone for the first hour of your morning can lead to a better and more productive mindset for the rest of the day.
Set timers whenever you go on your phone
Now, there are exceptions. Maybe your work revolves around social media, you may have an obligation to be active on the app. This is understandable, but can still be productively monitored. Set a timer each time you pick up your phone. If you want to scroll on Instagram for a bit, set a timer for 5 minutes. It is imperative, however, to make the active effort for change and dropping the phone once the timer goes off.
Find hobbies away from your phone
Lastly, social media is not our lives. An effective way to reduce your screen time is to find hobbies that are away from your phone. Things like, sports, puzzles, books, writing, and chatting with friends, are all examples of such activities. In the unprecedented times we face, it is difficult to live a life that isn’t virtual, but it isn’t impossible! There are many activities and hobbies to participate in, that will assist in decreasing your screen time.
In conclusion, it is definitely a challenge to completely eliminate our time spent on devices. However, it is very much possible to do our best to reduce it to the best of our abilities. You might have wondered why I didn’t list “delete social media” as one of the tips. Here’s why, that is a simple fix to your screen time problems. When I deleted social media, my screen time was below 10 minutes on the daily. However, it doesn’t allow for self control and self restraint. That’s why I still have the app on my phone, while still putting in the active effort to not let it consume me. Every person is different, and every route is different to achieve this, but these tips definitely allow me to live a healthier and more productive lifestyle.
Have you caught up on our recent editions?
This week I dive into Digital Dopamine, and the toxicity of social media in this age. Subscribe to IT’S TIME WE FACE IT, to get notified each time we publish a new read.
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