Screen Time
Whilst the concept of monitoring our screen time isn’t new, the pandemic has really cranked up the time we spend staring at screens. With some research showing that a massive 76% of 16 to 24 years olds having spent more time on their phones and 45% spending more time on their laptops. Those lockdown Netflix’s binges have also had their say, with 34% of the population spending more time watching TV. These probably aren’t surprising stats given what has happened over the last year but given we were starting from an already high level has highlighted the need for us to understand the impacts this has on our wellbeing.
Where is our screen time being spent?
No prizes for guessing the biggest drainer on our screen time - social media. Research shows that in 2020 the average adult spent three hours a day on social media. If we compare this to the average 90 minutes in 2012, it shows the time we spend on social media has doubled over this period and it shows no signs of stopping. This does vary around the world with South Americans being the biggest users of social media at an average of 3 hours 29 minutes per day!
What impact does all this screen time have?
There have been several studies and documentaries, such as 'The Social Dilemma', looking to examine the impact that long hours in front of the screen have on our physical and mental health. Whilst there are many benefits that screens bring in keeping us connected, informed and being an essential part of many jobs there is a correlation between screen time and its effects on health.
First let’s start with the physical impacts of screen time. Naturally screen time leads to sedentary behaviour and the more time we spend in front of a screen the more time we spend inactive. Coupled with screen time reducing general motivation and creativity, it’s easy to see the physical impacts that more screen time is having on our wellbeing. There is also an impact on our eyes, with long hours of screen time causing retina over-stimulation, which over time can worsen our vision.
Moving on to the mental impacts of screen time, which is arguably more damaging, numerous studies have called out that screen time can lead to anxiety and depression. We have shown that the majority of our time on screens is spent on social media, which brings its own challenges in life comparisons and striving to meet the unrealistic standards that social media can set. So it’s easy to see how screen time can cause depression and anxiety. It has been widely reported of the addictive nature of social media apps and smart phones in general, which, whilst having to aim of connecting people, can have the opposite effect of causing loneliness and isolation by becoming addicted to spending large chunks of your time on screens and limiting the time we spend with physical interactions.
So how can we become more aware of our screen time and better manage it?
Screens are now fully embedded in our lives so we aren’t going to eliminate screen time, and screens also have several benefits in connecting people. So we need to become more aware of the time we spend on screens and manage a better balance. Here we look at top tips on how to get a better balance:
1. Set a screen time limit on your phone: most smart phones now have the option of limiting the maximum hours per day we spend on our phone. This is a great way to understand how long we are spending and notify us when we should be taking a break
2. Remove notifications: notifications are one of the main drivers in the addictive nature of our phones so turning these off can reduce our dependency and as a result naturally increase the time we spend away from them.
3. Give your eyes a break: make sure you regularly take breaks from looking at a screen to give your eyes a break and a chance to focus on something else. You can also use dark modes and turn down the brightness of your screens to go easy on your eyes.
4. Setting times of the day for screen use: too many off us spend our last minutes of the day scrolling through ourphones or watching TV which can cause problems sleeping. One way to combat this is setting times of the day in which we stop using screens to allow our brains to relax at the end of the day.