The Importance of Reducing Your Screen Time

There’s certainly a lot of discussion around the amount of screen time that everyone is subjected and subject themselves to nowadays. Technology has evolved so much in such a short time and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Our screen times will only worsen as time goes by. That’s why it’s of such importance to actively try and reduce it whenever possible. Obviously, it’s impossible to go completely off the grid for most people, and that has its own issues as well, but slightly bringing down the screen hours on a daily basis might be a healthy move.

Benefits of Reducing Screen Time

Reducing your screen time is definitely worth considering for numerous reasons. There are so many benefits as well. Firstly, in order to best connect to your circle, whether it’s about family or friends, you need to be active and not just spend all your time online. Using some of those hours to connect to people around you is always a healthier move rather than spending seven hours straight watching YouTube.

Another key benefit of reducing your screen time is related to physical health. Your body needs to move around more and stay seated less. Whether it’s about your posture or a sudden weight gain, exercising or simply going out for a walk will most likely do wonders for your body.

Screen time additionally also affects your sleep. If you’re staying up late, binge-watching a show, or just scrolling through social media, you might forget to check the time. Moreover, if you’re not using any electrical device for one or two hours before going to sleep that’ll in fact help with the melatonin surge that’s needed for sleep.

Ways to Reduce Screen Time

One of the best ways to reduce your screen time is to try and listen to your body. If you’re bored and just needlessly scrolling through without any excitement then that might be a sign that it’s time to stop. If you’re noticing your body muscles are stiff try to stretch a bit and listen to what your body is telling you. Naturally, this is easier said than done but with time this can become the norm for you.

Also, try not to constantly eat in front of a screen. This may have become a general habit for so many people but that only brings forth more inclination for you to keep your eyes glued to a screen. There are countless ways you can be productive within your screen usage. Even if you don’t work online, try to use those hours for something that you consider productive at times. Clearly, having fun watching whatever you want online is far from the worst way you can spend your time, but that gets concerning once you’re constantly losing more than four or five hours per day to it.

Screen Time and Mental Health

Screen time connects to mental health as well. Simply put, it is a little bit of a conundrum when it comes to these two. You might find yourself on your fifth hour of screen time, in your bed, with lots of snacks around, and that’s okay every once in a while. However, a lot of people get to that point on a consistent basis purely because they’re struggling with mental health issues. This is a good way for them to reduce the stresses of life, or it could straight up just be a symptom of depression. It’s easy to say that in order to improve your mental health you need to reduce your screen time but realistically it’s exactly your mental health that puts you in a position to ‘abuse’ your screen time limits.

So many people go through this and yet everyone feels alone doing it. At times doing the smallest things that might not be considered life-changing will help get you out of that situation. Whether it’s just you folding your clothes, or doing any other chore that you’ve put off for days or weeks on end, that could be a great win for you and a fantastic step in the right direction.

Although physically we control our screens, a lot of the time mentally they seem to control us. Fighting back even in the smallest ways it’s simply necessary. Take back control!

Photo: fizkes/Shutterstock

You might also like:

I Did a Social Media Detox for a Week & Here Is What I Learned

Support us!

All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.