At Make Tech Easier, we usually bring you tried and tested tips that make your apps and gadgets easier to use. This time, I’m doing something different.
A quarter into 2024, I’m still working on my New Year’s resolution to control how much time I spend looking at screens. As someone who works in tech and has a lot of digital hobbies, it’s not easy.
But after some research and trying out several tactics myself, I’ve got some insights and suggestions for how you might get off your device, and spend more time in the real world.
So essentially, you’re reading about a project in progress. I’ll update this through the year as my habits (hopefully) change, and I’ll try to include inputs from readers like you, too.
Content
- How bad is my screen addiction?
- Isn’t there an app for that?
- What psychology says about screen time
- Neurotransmitters out of whack
- It’s not just them, it’s you
- What’s working for me
How bad is my screen addiction?
Let’s rewind to about six months ago. I’d routinely clock more than a couple of hours a day on Instagram alone. That’s just one of several apps I’d regularly scroll through any chance I got.
Clearly, I had a problem. And it didn’t exactly do me any favors. I was less present, less productive, less creative, and less introspective than I used to be.
Image source:
Priscilla Du Preez / Unsplash
I started to fix that earlier this year.
I’ve been consciously working on restricting my use of digital devices, and things are looking up. I now spend at least a couple of hours less on my devices per day than in January, which is pretty significant by my count.
My next goal is to reduce my compulsion to seek out screens when I’m unoccupied and replace that with other activities. It could involve being outdoors, spending time with my friends, pets, and family, or channeling my energy into something creative, like playing music.
Isn’t there an app for that?
Let’s take stock of where we’re at in the battle against screen addiction. Much has been written and researched over the years about the difficulties of managing screen time.
At this point, we’ve been through a pandemic’s worth of time indoors. Not only have we become more accustomed to spending hours glued to our screens, but apps are now better tuned to keep you engaged for longer.
Thankfully, we now have some digital tools designed to help control our screen time and tune out before going to bed (here’s how to do that on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS).
Specialized Android launchers like Minimalist Phone can help reduce the temptation to fire up your social apps
There are also other solutions, like Android home screen launchers aimed at preventing you from distracting apps, and tools that encourage you to think twice before opening time-wasting apps.
Apps like One Sec can encourage you to reconsider launching time-wasting apps
So while clever apps and tools do exist to help with this, they weren’t effective enough on their own to contend with my level of addiction.
What psychology says about screen time
I’ve been aware of my issue for a while, and I’ve tried to read and learn about the science behind it.
To understand more about what’s been going on with me, I spoke to Vidya Ramaswamy, a psychotherapist based in my hometown of Bangalore, India.
She reiterated the fact that we’re not the only ones at fault. Rather, we’re suffering at the hands of deft developers calibrating their apps to be as addictive as possible.
Image source:
Prateek Katyal / Unsplash
“We must acknowledge that (social media) companies spend millions of dollars researching how to engage the brain and keep the brain addicted. Their apps study our behavior continuously and improve their systems to learn which kinds of content capture our attention. And their constant endeavor is to feed us more of that,” she said.
Neurotransmitters out of whack
Ramaswamy also explained that continually consuming content this way disrupts how a neurotransmitter called dopamine is generated in our bodies and supplied across our synapses. This plays a significant role in keeping us hooked to our screens.
Dopamine is responsible for regulating our moods, and our energy levels that help us with movement. More importantly, it generates a sense of pleasure that comes out of a sense of achievement — which we can think of as rewards.
Image by Dall-E 3
“Social media scrolling gives us a quick hit of dopamine when we consume something that seems to evoke an emotion in us. Social media companies study our emotions, our attention spans, and even our micro-expressions while watching the screen and give us data that spikes dopamine levels. This keeps us hooked and we keep going back for more,” Ramaswamy explained.
It’s not just them, it’s you
There’s likely more to the story behind why we’re susceptible to our attention and mental rewards system being hijacked:
“It’s also possible that many of us have lower baseline dopamine levels today. So the point here is that social media (or whatever other source of dopamine spike) is a secondary problem. It is preying on the fact that we all have a low baseline and default level of dopamine,” said Ramaswamy.
She also highlighted a thought shared by Tristan Harris, co-founder of Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit focused on improving our relationship with tech.
Ramaswamy explained, “Harris referred to phones as “digital pacifiers.” When we’re bored, when we’re waiting for someone, or just by ourselves doing nothing, we seem to turn to our phones to “soothe us” somehow. It is a way of distracting ourselves from our own inner worlds and because it makes it chemically rewarding, we can’t stop.”
What’s working for me
I’ve admitted that I’m not yet happy with how I’m managing my screen time. But at the same time, I can honestly say I’m doing far better now than at the start of the year.
I’ve managed to bring my social media app usage down to under an hour a day, largely by deleting them from my phone. They’re still accessible on my iPad, but I’ve had success leaving it in a different room of the house and out of arm’s reach for most of the day.
Next, I walk for an hour a day every morning. That by itself scores me an hour away from screens daily. It also gets me out of the house, and gives me time to be alone with my thoughts. Turns out it’s not so bad to simply be, without consuming content of some kind.
There are three ideas that have worked for me, that I believe could work for you too:
1. Being aware
I’ve been reflecting on the book Hooked by Nir Eyal from a few years ago. It talks about how the tactics used by companies behind popular apps (especially social networks) are trying everything in their power to keep you coming back.
Understanding and acknowledging that this impacts my habits gives me some insight into why I spend my time the way I do. And that makes the spell just a tad bit easier to break.
There’s another kind of awareness that’s helpful. And that is recognizing that when you scroll through feeds on your favorite apps, it’s largely the same content you’ve seen before. When you open TikTok or even LinkedIn enough times, you’ll see patterns in the kind of content you’re served up.
When I launch Instagram, I’m greeted by a handy life hack, a cool new motorcycle, a delicious-looking recipe, and a beautiful vacation destination. But do I really need to see more of all these things? I just saw dozens of them yesterday. And missing out on these won’t make a difference to my life.
A good way to actually ‘feel’ this is to force yourself to spend a day without your most addicting apps. You’ll then have a real-life data point to confirm that it’s really okay to skip using them. And that can go a long way towards breaking your compulsive habit of checking apps and feeds.
2. Breaking your habit one day at a time
The idea is to break your habit without much of a strategy or a specific target in mind. Instead, just try to go through several days in a week where you don’t give in to those apps. That’s it.
In my case, I simply deleted Instagram. You might find it easy to do that or to restrict yourself to a few minutes a day.
You can eventually build that up to several days in a month, and turn that into a regular way of life.
To that end, a habit tracking app can help you maintain your streak and visualize it to encourage you to keep going.
3. Replacing screen time with something more fulfilling
I’ve found walking and reading daily feel way better and offer more benefits than scrolling through feeds.
Image source:
Yan Krukau / Pexels
Naturally, you can pick up any other hobbies and activities that appeal to you.
Again, you’re not eyeing a specific goal here; simply having something other than scrolling to default to when you might typically reach for your phone is plenty.
I sincerely hope this helps you figure out your own journey towards spending less time on your screens, and regaining control over how you channel your energy every day. I’d love to hear if any of this works for you — let me know in the comments.
Further reading
- Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke talks about the evolutionary role of dopamine.
- Lembke has also published a book called Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
- Published this year, The Phone Fix by Dr. Faye Begeti explores what’s happening in your brain when you use your phone, and how you can combat the effects.
Featured image: Dall-E 3
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Abhimanyu Ghoshal
Abhimanyu is obsessed with finding apps and gadgets that extend our capabilities, whether that’s a second brain in the cloud or a new way to create art. He’s been covering consumer tech over a decade as a journalist and editor. When he’s not busy trying new devices, he’s out motorcycling across South India.
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