Manage Your Screen Time

To start, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Why? Because what you are about to read will not be what you may be worried about. This article will not command you to give up your electronic devices. It will not pressure you to eliminate all screen usage from your life.

The reason for that is painfully obvious. We need digital screens to be productive in this age. In fact, this magazine could not be made without the involvement of many screens!

In daily life, it can be satisfying to use tech to instantly access information, harness an app that makes your life easier, or find a new source of stimulating entertainment. Pretty much every type of screen can be used positively—whether it is a TV, computer monitor, tablet, smartphone or smart watch.

But too much of a good thing can be bad. Honey is delicious and promotes vibrant health, but consuming too much causes indigestion (Prov. 25:16). Sunlight replenishes the body’s supply of vitamin D, but prolonged exposure leads to painful sunburns. Technology use is the same.

Screen time, if harnessed correctly, is beneficial. Yet it is easy to overdo this. Technology overuse, and even addiction, is a danger for everyone—adults and teens alike—who uses these devices.

Likely, you have had times when you have stood up from your couch after a long session of screen time, looked at the clock, and wondered where your evening went. You may have experienced the sensation of seeing a larger-than-expected “Weekly Screen Time Report” notification appear on your iPad and cringed. This feeling of embarrassment may have only grown if you examined which apps made the largest contributions.

Screen use is sneaky. If left unchecked, it can quietly multiply into more and more seconds, minutes and hours. And with more time, the quality of what you are doing on these screens easily becomes degraded.

CNN reported, “US teens spend an average of more than seven hours per day on screen media for entertainment, and tweens spend nearly five hours, a new report finds—and that doesn’t include time spent using screens for school and homework.

“Among teens, the amount of time dedicated to several individual screen activities inched up by 42 minutes per day since 2015, the report said. Nearly 62% spend more than four hours a day on screen media and 29% use screens more than eight hours a day, according to a report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that helps kids, parents and schools navigate media.”

What is the result? Referencing a 2018 study, Popular Science stated that “among teenagers (aged 14 to 17 years), those who had a high use of screen time (seven or more hours a day), were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety in the past year. The study also found that moderate screen users (those who spent about four hours a day in front of devices) also had a lower psychological well-being.”

Other bad effects can include wrist injuries, eye problems such as digital eyestrain, bad posture (think of “tech neck”), and more.

In our technology-driven age, many find themselves constantly reaching for their devices, consciously or subconsciously. In fact, nomophobia, which is the “fear or worry at the idea of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it,” was Cambridge Dictionary’s 2018 word of the year.

Many users check their notifications nonstop. This has only been intensified by much more time spent indoors due to COVID-19. Each familiar “ding” draws them away from whatever they were doing. They deeply depend on their screens.

You can be different! By actively managing your screen time, you can reap the benefits of technology and bypass its pitfalls.

Digital Detox

Begin to honestly evaluate where you are: How much screen time do you use each day? Most devices today have built-in applications to help you keep track. Take a look and consider whether your amount of screen use is acceptable. Do long binges happen only occasionally, or are they your everyday lifestyle?

Also consider whether you primarily use electronic devices toward wholesome and productive ends, or as an escape—a way to avoid more difficult responsibilities in your life.

Being tech-savvy is crucial to function as you advance in life toward adulthood. But perhaps the biggest hazard with screen time is that it can only take you so far.

Indeed, your devices are used to communicate with friends, encounter news headlines, discover new music releases, and more. However, at a point, you must engage with the world around you. Actively practicing life skills is key to achieving your full potential.

You cannot fully learn to interact with another person while behind a camera and keyboard. You cannot activate your senses—smell, touch, taste, etc.—by simply hitting a play button. There comes a time when you must get away from tech and really experience life.

So what do you do if you have evaluated your tech use and want to lessen your dependency on it?

Start with realizing you are far from alone. Many people have sought to break the trend with a “digital detox.”

The term digital detox can sound daunting, but it is actually very simple. Dictionary.com defines it as “a period during which a person refrains from using digital or electronic devices in order to break a pattern of excessive or compulsive use, and instead prioritizes face-to-face social interactions, mindfulness, harmony with nature, etc.”

Note that this detox does not have to last an entire day—simply a period of time.

Getting away from devices for just a few hours here and there will help build positive momentum. However, there is no “one size fits all”—you must consider your personal circumstances.

Challenge yourself to work up to a full day away from your devices. You could do this on the Sabbath, which has the added value of giving you more time for Bible study.

No matter how long a detox is, the conscious effort to periodically make a clean break will make a big difference in your screen dependence. The more “separation anxiety” you feel, the more you should realize that time away was needed!

Be Moderate

As you progress, keep in mind that the goal is not “all or nothing” with tech use but rather balance. Too much screen use is one ditch, which can lead to other large areas of your life going unmanaged. However, banning all use of technology would be another extreme, one that is unrealistic for the time in which we live.

Just think of all the services that require ongoing internet access such as banking, accessing teen Bible studies on Member Services and ordering products. Some restaurants do not even allow you to reserve a table if you do not have a smartphone!

When the Old and New Testaments were recorded, the technology of 2021 obviously did not exist. Bible greats like Noah, Abraham and Moses never had to grapple with spending too much time on Facebook.

Yet this Book does contain guiding principles that can apply to anyone at any time (Heb. 4:12). The character attributes of balance and moderation are found throughout the pages of God’s Word.

The apostle Paul taught, “Let your moderation be known unto all men” (Phil. 4:5). He applied this personally. In I Corinthians, he added, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (6:12, NKJV).

Be sure to regularly ask God in prayer to help you live by these principles. He is willing and eager to help you. God does not want you to throw all your electric devices in the garbage. Yet He also does not want you glued to screens 24/7. He desires His followers to be well-rounded and successful. Take a moment to read III John 2.

Remembering Paul’s words, sometimes screen use can be “lawful”—meaning it does not conflict with God’s Law—but is not always “helpful” to achieving your goals in life.

Make Incremental Changes

The key to achieving balance is to begin making small, incremental changes. These should be slightly challenging yet simple enough to actually accomplish. The following are habits you can begin forming right away.

Take an active interest in time management. Be purposeful in how you use your free time. When you have a moment of leisure, do not just instinctively reach for your smartphone or tablet. Become more organized with setting goals and scheduling what you would like to do in a given day.

While it is not necessary to plan every moment, having more structure will go a long way to avoiding screen overuse. To learn much more about time management, read the Ambassador Youth article “Take Control of Your Time”.

Use settings on your devices that allow for greater control. Many smartphones offer the ability to set “quiet hours” in the morning and evening, as well as apply time limits for specific apps. Also, review which apps are permitted to show you notifications, and disable those that will needlessly distract you. “Silent mode” can also be a big help to staying focused on your other tasks.

Create separation between you and your tech. For example, leave your phone at home while you go on an errand with your parents. You do not always need to have it at arm’s reach.

Also, leaving devices out of your bedroom and using an old-fashioned alarm clock to wake up in the morning can help remove temptation as well as increase the quality of your sleep.

According to SleepFoundation.org, “The blue light that’s emitted from these screens can delay the release of sleep-inducing melatonin, increase alertness, and reset the body’s internal clock (or circadian rhythm) to a later schedule. This is an especially big problem for teens whose circadian rhythms are already shifting naturally, causing them to feel awake later at night.”

Evaluate areas to cut back. Not all screen time is equal. If using electronic devices is causing you to feel anxious and unproductive, it is a sign you should reduce your use.

A New York Times article advised: “The more moment-to-moment awareness you can cultivate about the mental effects of your screen time, the more in control you will be. If your screen time is making you feel productive, soothed, calm or happy, then carry on. If it’s unnecessary and makes you feel bad, or if it helps in small doses but makes you feel worse if you binge, then cut down. The amount of screen time isn’t what matters; it’s how that screen time makes you feel.”

Find non-screen alternatives for screen activities. Before you pick up your device, consider how you could accomplish the same goal without it. While this is not possible or practical for everything, a substitute is available more often than you may think. For example, instead of always reading the Bible using an app, spend time paging through the physical book. Instead of texting others to ask about their day, give them a call.

Cultivate other hobbies and interests. Think about productive activities you can do in place of technology overuse. Matthew 12:43-45 illustrates a principle that can be applied to eliminating habits. You must not leave a void, but rather replace the bad with good.

An article in The Conversation stated, “If you feel your digital overuse might simply be due to boredom, then physical activity, cooking, or adopting offline hobbies can all provide alternative forms of entertainment.”

What about scheduling an exercise routine three days a week? Or challenging yourself by trying to accomplish a tricky calisthenic such as a one-arm pushup. You could learn a card game or bake a cake. How about painting a scene of your backyard? Trying your hand at some new Frisbee tricks? The possibilities are endless.

To combat screen overuse, you can “make a list of off-screen activities that you enjoy, so that when you are faced with a pocket of free time, you’ll have ideas ready for how to spend it,” The New York Times article stated. “For example: going for a walk, meditating or praying, taking a bath, playing an instrument, listening to music or a podcast, cooking or reading a book.

“To make this even easier, take out any necessary equipment and leave it in sight—for example, keep your guitar out of its case, or leave a book next to the bathtub. Also recognize that sometimes a little extra effort is worth it—for example, it’s easier to scroll through social media than it is to go for a walk, but the latter is likely to have a much better effect on your mental health.”

You Can Do It

As you seek to make improvements, there will be successes and occasional setbacks. Despite the best of intentions, you may find yourself yet again laying on the couch scrolling through social media and losing track of time. You may realize that what you are doing is unproductive, but the way out of it is unclear.

Sometimes, all you need to do is to change your environment. Get up and move around. Go to a different room in your house for a brief chat with a family member. Getting outdoors, even for just a stroll around the block, will also help restore your focus.

An article in Psychology Today stated, “A growing body of research suggests that green spaces enhance mental health and learning capacity both immediately and over time, by lowering stress levels and restoring attention. Greenery restores attention by drawing the eye while calming the nervous system simultaneously, creating a state of ‘calm alertness’—a state considered ideal for learning. (This is in contrast to stress-based alertness associated with screen activities, which deplete attention.)”

If you get off track, make adjustments and get back on again. Do not allow failures to spiral into thinking you will never get better. This negative mindset will lead to additional failures.

Do not be afraid to seek support from family and friends. Let them know that you are trying to cut back on your screen time. If they are strong in this area, seek their perspective for what they have done that works. If a friend is also struggling, encourage each other. Your parents are especially willing to help you manage this.

Keep the big picture in mind. While it can at times feel trivial to track your tech use, your focus in life plays a major role in shaping your character.

Remembering Paul’s words, strive to be moderate and use screen time only to the extent that it benefits your life. Take advantage of the value technology offers while seizing regular opportunities to disconnect and get away from it. By doing this, along with making small changes in your daily life, you will guarantee success in properly managing your screen time.