During my university days I wasn’t much of the on screen person I hardly use my phone except if it wasn’t to answer calls or any crucial messages on social media, especially on group platform, being a head leader and being a course representative for various course, led me to use my phone to relate information to lecturers and student, answer questions form my fellow coursemate, you know the various duty that comes with responsibility. The funny thing is, I had never programmed my day like that; it was just a subconscious action until my close friend Tam and my roommate Rex brought it to my attention. Im not going to lie and say in university I was the secluded type, nope not at all, I was very social, I prefer to go a walk with my friends or talk in person then rather than engaging through the phone, this definitely lies in the fact that when I was younger my parent wasn’t too restrictive with my movement I was allowed to go out, to socialize, to play ball and the fact that most of my friends in school lived closely together so we usually meetup. I’m not going to say I didn’t like using my phone; I did, playing Injustice, COD, and the rest of the games, but as I entered university, the need to be engaged in my phone just became less and less appealing. It wasn’t until my 400/500 level that I realised this. I couldn’t watch movies or series without another person also watching it with me, especially with my roommates.
The whole reason I’m saying all this is that now that I’m a graduate, I have a lot of time on my hands, shockingly enough, and fewer people in my life because all my close friends have either relocated to other residential areas. I spend more and more time on my phone, and I don’t need to check my screen time to know it has drastically increased over the past few months. It got to a point where I was doing less but constantly feeling tired and drained. Then I had to ask myself what was I doing that was making me feel so tired? and I realised that I was on my phone too much, which became a problem of demotivation and constant fatigue.
Danger of too much screen time
The first Danger of screen time that I personally notice is fatigue: the use of your smartphone might seem harmless, but the constant checking of your phone can lead to you feeling burned out very quickly. The world is filled with a never-ending stream of information and entertainment, along with a lot of digital distractions, which can lead to brain overstimulation, leaving you feeling tired and mentally drained before you’ve even engaged in any activities during the day, even without doing anything physically strenuous. Imagine your body as a car and your brain as the engine. Using your phone is like leaving your car on, meaning the vehicle is consuming fuel even when it’s stationary. The same thing happens with the brain: the brain never rests but only recharges, hence constant screen time on your phone, is leaving your brain constantly processing information, be it hilarious, factual, or emotional feedback it receives, and your body will feel more and more fatigue. Another example I will give, is that have you ever realised that after watching a movie or a series in the cinema or in your home, you feel exhausted afterwards, that is because although the other part of your body is at rest like your hands and legs due to you sitting stationary, the brain however is still processing all the information being transmitted as you watch the movie, leading to that feeling of exhaustion.
Lack of sleep or rather Deep sleep: The blue light emitted by our phone screens can disrupt our sleep patterns. This light interferes with melatonin production, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep. When melatonin levels are disrupted, your sleep cycle is thrown off, making it harder to fall asleep. Over time, poor sleep quality can lead to chronic fatigue, affecting your ability to function at your best. It is not something new or groundbreaking that using your phone a few minutes before bed disrupts your sleep and prevents you from properly recharging your mind, making one still feeling tired after long hours of sleep. The inverse also exists when you are waking up. Now imagine your brain to be a car, when you wake up in the morning, you inspect your vehicle, do some preliminary check on your vehicle then you warm it up, you don’t enter your car and hit accelerate, this will gradually spoil the car engine, and this beautiful illustration was given to me at by my driving instructor, when I was recently learning how to drive. Now, equating this to the brain, imagine waking up in the morning, the first thing you grab is your phone. What you are doing to your brain is hitting the accelerator on your brain. It starts processing and perceiving thought information from videos, messages, and emails too early in the morning, and, over time, this repeated action will lead to early exhaustion and a feeling of tiredness in the morning. Hence, I always recommend mapping out a morning routine as a way to warm up the brain before getting it into gear.
Less focus and concentration: This is arguably the most dangerous effect of too much screen time: a lack of focus and concentration. Modern media isn’t out to help us but enslave us into a pattern of short focus and attention span. Videos recommended by social media platforms should not be more than 1 minute to capture viewers’ attention. This is one of the core reasons why I titled this blog the Synthetic Glitch, because there is a glitch in the brain that these companies are exploiting, your attention span. I noticed this while doing my usual Bible study. My average attention span on this should be 35 minutes, but recently I have found it reducing. By 7-10 minutes in my mind is already wandering, or I’m already exhausted, feeling like I have spent the full the 35 minutes, not knowing I haven’t even spent up to 10 minutes. I was like, what is different? Then I realised that, as there is no rigorous university schedule, exams, or deadlines, I have a lot of free time on my hands, which I tend to spend on my phone, especially on TikTok and Instagram. I noticed an adverse effect on my attention span. However, in my university days, I found a way around this, and I often teach people this when I talk about the Workflow state. Which is that “During your break in-between focus sessions or within your free time, reduce the amount of reels you watch rather than watch long videos, preferably YouTube videos.” Not too long, though 10 minutes and above is good. This will enable you to search for informative or fun things to watch and also increase your attention span. Therefore, giving you the novelty of relaxation without chipping your attention span.
Lack of human interaction and poor Communication skills: This is one of the harmful effects of screen time I have noticed on the younger generation and the young adult; their whole social life is behind the screen, and thus, when they grow up, they experience difficulties in social interaction, and also in making friends and sustaining friendships. Simple solution: go out more, interact with people, and interact with friends and family. This will build your communication and people skills. You might say that the person you talk to most is over text because you two can’t physically meet. Then call and try to keep the conversation flowing over the call.
Demotivation often manifests as procrastination caused by excessive screen time. Have you ever experienced these two situations? First, when you plan to do something and say, “I will do it in 30 minutes,” and the time reaches. The task still hasn’t been done, so you postpone it again. Second scenario: you feel demotivated even to start anything, so you pick up your phone and doom-scroll. Fun fact: you are not alone; this behaviour is familiar to many people because our screen time has rewired our brains to seek dopamine from simple novelty that requires littlr effort, work, or a sense of accomplishment. That is why we must reclaim dopamine from accomplishment rather than from screen time, and we do this by building momentum, one of my personal hacks for motivation.
The benefit of less screen time
The benefit of less screen time is more of the inverse of the negative consequences of too much screen time, improve focus, a feeling of greater motivation, less sense of fatigue, especially when one has not done any work at all, improved sleep, enhanced social connection, and for people like me that uses glasses, improved eye health, etc.
Simple three steps method one should use to reduce screen time
Here are some simple steps to help you reduce your screen time and accomplish more with the spare time you have on the ground. Although they are app that can help you drastically cut down your screen time like one popular app called one sec, but many of this app are behind a paywall because they recognized the value that they are giving to their client, hence if you don’t have a couple of dollars to spare, on monthly subscription on a app this simple three techniques will help you drastically reduces your screen time.
Schedule your use of social media.
Firstly, this is one of the most prominent techniques I still use today: scheduling my use of social media. I discovered this technique while reading the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, when the author spoke about the effect of social media on our focus and stated that, instead of taking a break from your distractions, why not take a break from focus. Meaning that often time what we as human being do is that we scroll on social media for long hours and then be like “Okay it time to Read,” this is taking a break from your distraction, now turn it the other way around you have been reading or doing any productive task for long hours “Okay it time to use Social media,” this is a break form your focus productivity time. Ultimately, the best way to implement this is to schedule your social media use far in advance. And as such, when you are done, and you see you still have an hour or two left, before you can go on your social, you start becoming more creative with your time.
Off all notifications
One thing I love doing is turning off my notifications. During secondary school, I work with my phone a lot, especially while creating flashcards, so I turn off notifications for games, YouTube, etc., so I won’t be using my phone, and a notification pops up and derails me. During my university time, it felt like everything and everyone was competing for my attention, so I turned off all my notifications across all my social media. I implemented this in a way, but let’s not dive deep into it. Just know that if any information is essential, you will receive a call.
Recharge
It’s not just about reducing your screen time; it’s also about finding activities that will allow you to recharge throughout the day, because oftentimes people view that using their phones and scrolling through social media is a form of relaxation, helping one recharge, which it is, but done in excess can lead to the consequences highlighted earlier on. Hence, you need to find a hobby or activity that you can do to recharge and activate your scatter focus so your mind can wander and be creative, because great idea doesn’t come in immense focus, they come while you’re bathing, paint Etc. that the realm of scatter focus popularised by Chris Bailey. Hence, find a hobby, such as drawing, exercise, meditation, writing, etc., to recharge. Personally, I often read to recharge: light novels, not too long (I think those are called novellas), adventure books, and, usually, self-help books. In my secondary school days, I used to draw to recharge. I drew a lot, even to the point that I drew a picture of one of my female friends, gave it to her, and her mom saw it. Her mom called me to inquire if she could pay me to draw it bigger, instead of on A4 paper, on cardboard. I was like “aight” free money, though not free, but worked for.
Conclusion
Reducing your screen time is for your general well-being, and I wrote this to encourage people to do so. You are not your own problem. The industry is trying to make you addicted to your phone, but don’t be. Live your life with minimal distraction and screen time, enjoy each day, and use your phone as an instrument to get things done, not as a life support system. Remember to be Productive.
