19 Sep 2021

I’m not sure about you but my screen time has dramatically increased since lockdown started on all of my personal devices. It’s doubled from five to ten hours. Darn you, iPhone Screen Time notification for ruining my Sunday mornings and holding me accountable. And you’re probably wondering, “surely it’s not that much." Well…

Nope, it’s pretty accurate. I go around singing TikTok sounds around my house even when I'm not scrolling - it has literally taken over my life. I’m feeling pretty brain dead at this stage. Actually, what's going through my head rn is 🎵 berries and cream, berries and cream, I'm a little lad who loves berries and cream! 🎵

According to a YouthSense report from earlier this year, Gen Z would normally spend an average of five hours per day in front of a screen. Surely this has gone up since then. But is this such a bad thing and is it detrimental to our eyesight or mental wellbeing?

Is screen time detrimental?

Work, leisure and study has all been adapted to function for us on our devices. We're online for classes, work meetings and to catch up with friends because we can't see one another like we could. You’d think after some long hours of staring at a screen each day that we’d unplug, go for a walk and give technology a rest but... no. 

I have a love hate relationship when it comes to technology. I think we’re blessed with how far technology has come but we’re also becoming heavily reliant on it during lockdown. There’s nothing else to do after we knock all the activities and our hobbies out of the way. 

Experts say it is unclear whether social media has uncovered mental health issues that have always existed or whether it is a direct cause, but at least we know this’ll only last for a short time. This lack of social learning and interaction is taking a toll on everyone, especially the people that need it for development on motor skills, like kindergarten students. I can only imagine how bored my mum would be, watching me write out my X’s in between the lines and perfecting paper margins. 

In saying that, we are replacing physical, tangible, face-to-face connections with online ones. We’re still messaging our friends and family. We’re staying connected in the only ways possible at the moment, so kudos for FaceTime and Zoom.

Do you think this your screen time has affected your mental and physical health? It has for me but it varies from person to person so check in with yourself, use your phone and laptop in moderation, take lunch when you’re supposed to, go for walks during the day and know this is only for a short time.