Day One: 4 or More Hours of Screen Usage
I wake up at 7:00 AM and lay in bed until 7:30 AM mindlessly scrolling on my phone before I get up. By 8:00 AM I’m cleaned up and ready for the day. I go downstairs, get something to eat, and scroll for another thirty minutes. 8:30 AM I have homework or studying that can be done, so I get out my materials to do so. By 9:30 AM I spend about 15 minutes studying or doing homework and 45 minutes on my phone. I lost my motivation to study, so I put away my schoolwork altogether for the rest of the day. I move to the living room and spend the next 2 hours playing video games: 11:30 AM. I get a text from my friends asking if I’m free to hang out. I leave the house around 11:45 AM and meet them in West Salem at about 12:00 PM. By 12:00 PM I’ve spent roughly 3 hours and 45 minutes on screens. My friends want to go to lunch, and we arrive at our destination around 12:15 PM. We left around 1:00 PM, and I spent about 15 minutes scrolling on my phone when the conversation lulled. We go to one of our houses and do something outside for maybe an hour—2:00 PM. We go back inside and spend the rest of the day playing games, but not just video games. We mess around and play non-screen-related games for around 6 hours, and screen-related games for around 5 hours with intermittent phone checking. I’ll round it out to about 5½ more hours on screens by 11:00 PM. The total screen time of this day is 9½ hours, and I am left feeling unprepared for school and with no sense of fulfillment throughout the day.
Day Two: Less than 4 Hours of Screen Usage
I wake up at 7:00 AM, get out of bed and get ready for the day. I’m downstairs by 7:30 AM getting something to eat. I’m done eating by 7:45 AM and spend maybe 5 minutes checking any messages from friends or family. Feeling productive, I begin working on any homework or studying I have to do for classes. By 9:15 AM I feel prepared and comfortable for the upcoming school week. In that 1½ hours, I may have spent around 15 minutes checking my phone. My mom asked me to do some chores which I got done in 45 minutes, and I spent 10 of those minutes checking my phone–10:00 AM. Next, I decided to clean my room up and do my laundry. This takes about 45 minutes, and I spent 10 of those on my phone–10:45 AM. I then go get a workout in and finish up around 12:00 PM. I spent another 10 minutes on my phone. My friends want to go out to lunch and hang out the rest of the day. I go home, shower, and leave my house by 12:30 PM. I arrive at lunch around 12:45 PM. We eat, talk, and leave for one of our houses. I spent about 15 minutes on my phone–1:45 PM. We arrive at a house around 2:00 PM. We spend the next six hours outside having a fire, playing games, and just having fun. I spend about 30 of those minutes on my phone by 8:00 PM. We go inside and play video games until 10:00 PM before turning on a movie and going to bed. Throughout the day, I ended up spending just over 3½ hours using a screen. I end the day with a sense of accomplishment and no worries for the upcoming school week.
What Does it all Mean?
It is clear, by looking at these two days, that I feel better after a day of minimal screen time versus a day of excess screen time. However, I would say there is a time and place for both of these days with moderation in mind. Sometimes having a day like day one is nice, but context is important. If you’re constantly on your phone or distracted by screens while you have things to do, it might be time to change your priorities. However, if you truly have nothing to do, or you just finished a long week of school, it might be worth it to give yourself a break and put some things on the back burner, but you need to be willing to handle any problems that may arise with this decision.
Days like day two really only happen when you’re feeling motivated. It’s honestly unrealistic to try to live like that every day. The chances are, you won’t have the motivation to get everything you need to get done between 7:00 AM and 12:00 PM. It is important, however, to take advantage of these days when you do have the motivation. There will come a time when you don’t have the motivation to get your things done, but you have to force yourself to anyway. Will you be able to accomplish it all in 5 hours like you would be able to when you’re feeling motivated? Probably not. This is where realistic goals and moderation of screen time come into play.
When looking at screen time–or phone usage to be more specific–it is important to be realistic with yourself. Almost everybody has lived both of these days at some point, but I can almost guarantee that not every day looks like one of these two days. Most days you’re probably in-between these two extremes of being entirely motivated or entirely unmotivated. When it comes down to it, screen time isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can even be a good thing. However, if screens are causing you to fall behind in your daily life, it may be time to take action and prioritize your time better.