If you've noticed yourself feeling quite lethargic or lazy lately you are not alone. I've been giving a lot of thought into why I've been feeling so out of it and I really believe that it has to do with the amount of time I am spending staring at a screen.

Obviously I have spent a good amount of time on here in the last few months. Additionally since all of my courses are online there is not much time during the span of a normal work day where I am not looking at a screen. As a result, I wanted to look up some studies to see if anyone has looked into how much the screen time has gone up on average for people and how that has affected them.

Study #1 Children's Hospital

I briefly worked for Children's Hospital and know for a fact that these studies are done meticulously accurately. According to their report (https://www.chop.edu/news/health-tip/screen-time-during-the-pandemic), teens spent around 6.5 hours on screens BEFORE Covid. So it's safe to say that those numbers have at least doubled with 6-8 hours of their day that used to be in person schooling has relocated to the internet. This report is mostly focused on mental health as a result of increased screen time.

Although there are some positives to screen time such as access to insane amounts of educational/useful information, the ability to stay in touch with distanced friends and the ability to stay in the loop, there are some big negatives.

The increase in screen time has brought with it an increase in feelings of FOMO, a lack of privacy, increased unwanted interactions and come into contact with content that is harmful for one's self-esteem.

FOMO

I think we've all felt it in the crypto space. With powerful algorithms from Twitter and Instagram, users of centralized media apps have likely found that much of their content falls within a few topical 'baskets'. With a demonstrated interest in cryptocurrency, I have gotten countless recommended tweets about gains and tokens that are going to the moon. It feels as if everyone is getting rich except for me and that can be a frustrating feeling.

The reality is that FOMO is often times unfounded. What people decide to post is usually meticulously planned out and constructed in a certain way to convey a specific feeling. Not everyone is getting rich, keep working on yourself and be conscious that what you see on the screen is not always 100% reality.

Study #2: United Healthcare

This report (https://www.uhc.com/content/dam/uhcdotcom/en/BrokersAndConsultants/UnitedHealthcare-Screen-Time-Report-2020.pdf) is a bit more focused on the statistics and the physical health risks that increased screen time is posing.

Average screen time for those involved in this research study was over 13 hours. If you take it for granted that people were sleeping for 8 hours, then this is only 3 hours per day that people are not staring into screens...

Very dangerous but not commonly known is the effect of blue light radiation on the eyes. Though I am not sure who they interviewed, this report says that 94% of eye doctors they surveyed were concerned that the increased exposure to screens could cause irreversible damage to the eyes.

What Is Blue Light?

Blue light is a very low frequency, yet incredibly damaging wavelength of light. It comes from things like screens and even the sun (it is one of the reasons why you can't stare at the sun!).

Takeaways

We are living in an era where screen time is necessary for partaking in work, socialization or even spending time on your social media. Since it is probably impossible to send your screen time to zero hours per day, you should be cautious about the brightness of your screen and should even consider investing in glasses that filter out blue light.

Additionally, try your best to reduce your screen time. You may not be able to skip the one hour work meeting on Zoom, but you can skip your nightly two hour scroll through Twitter. TAKE A BREAK!

Being conscious of the amount of time you are spending on your phone or laptop will help you to better manage it. By reducing and controlling your amount of screen exposure, you may find yourself feeling more energized and aware of your surroundings. You will also be doing your eyes a favor as the amount of blue light hitting them will be greatly reduced.

I would also like to announce the winner of my writer's block delegation contest as @regenerette ! Congrats to you, I will be sending your delegation over soon. Thank you to everyone that participated!

If you enjoyed this article please feel free to reblog/rehive!

@mariosfame gif once again, I love it

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