ACCORDING TO THE website DataReportal. com, the average American’s daily screen time—the amount of time spent each day gazing at a smartphone, tablet, laptop, TV, or other screened device—is approximately seven hours.
Of course, not all that time is spent in frivolous or directionless pursuits. It’s the rare occupation nowadays that doesn’t demand significant screen time to get work done, and access to the internet offers students tremendous opportunities for learning, research, and discovery. Indeed, screened devices are an important part of our world, and they’re here to stay.
Nonetheless, it’s well established
that excessive screen time can have an adverse impact on one’s physical, emotional, and social wellbeing, and that paring back the unnecessary use of screened devices can yield a wide range of benefits.
Here are just some of the many good reasons to either reduce your daily screen time or give yourself and your family a complete break—a vacation, if you will—from the constant use of screened devices:
More time for exercise
Who has time to get out and exercise nowadays? You just might if you reclaim a little of the time you spend staring at a screen each day. How much time? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (for example, brisk walking) per week. That translates to just 30 minutes a day, five days a week. In addition, the CDC recommends that adults incorporate muscle-strengthening activities into their routine two days out of the week.
Boosting your level of physical activity can provide a host of health benefits, such as strengthening your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems as well as preventing obesity and all its associated comorbidities.
Kids who set screened devices aside for at least a portion of each day often discover they have more time for healthy physical activity and active play with peers and/or siblings, whether that means riding their bicycles, visiting neighborhood parks, hiking nearby trails, getting a group of friends together to play informal sports, crafting, painting, or any other activity that helps connect them with one another and the real (rather than virtual) world.
Excessive screen time tends to disrupt normal, meaningful, person- to-person interactions and replace them with sterile, shallow, artificial ones. Limiting screen time, on the other hand, makes it possible for people to be present to one another in the here and now, not just physically but also cognitively and emotionally. As a result, family members and friends don’t have to compete with ever-present devices for attention and interaction, which helps build and strengthen interpersonal bonds.
Slashing screen time can also produce some surprising results where kids’ social development is concerned. For instance, according to mayoclinichealthsystem.org, “One study found that children who went without electronic devices for five days were better at recognizing facial emotions and reading nonverbal cues than those who lived life as usual. Less screen time can result in better face-to-face social skills.”
Better mood
Research has shown a link between excessive screen time and various mental health disorders. In fact, according to an article written by neurologist Jesse Mindel, MD, a clinical assistant professor at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, and optometrist Phillip Yuhas, OD, PhD, an assistant professor in The Ohio State University College of Optometry, “…using screens for long periods has been associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders in adults and children. In one study, children who used screens for seven hours a day were twice as likely to develop anxiety or depression than children who used screens for an hour or less a day.”
It’s clear, then, that setting aside that smartphone or other screened device and spending more time engaged in healthy physical or social activities can help reduce the risk of mental-health issues and boost your mood and sense of wellbeing.
Improved sleep
Last but certainly not least, limiting screen use before bedtime can improve the quality and consistency of your sleep—which in turn gives you more energy for healthy activity and productivity during the day.
Screen time can deprive us of sleep in various ways. One way is by revving us up with stimulating content right when we should be trying to disconnect, relax, and wind down. Another is by producing blue light that, studies have shown, can disrupt the body’s natural circadian rhythm, as well as suppress the release of melatonin, a hormone associated with drowsiness.
To prevent sleep disruption stemming from screen time, try to avoid using any screened device for at least one hour (preferably longer) before bedtime. If you need a distraction to help you relax, read a book or take a warm bath instead. ✲
