Strategies for Coping with Screen Addiction
By Hailey Grey
If you think you are addicted to your screens, you can rest assured you’re not alone. It’s a global phenomenon. Even before the pandemic, the average American adult was spending around 3.5 hours per day on their phone scrolling the internet.
In the age of COVID-19, this problem has only increased: during the national lockdown in the UK, for example, people were spending 40% of their time watching TV. It’s an incredible statistic, showing the power screens have over our waking hours.
Screen addiction, whether on TVs, computers or phones, is real and can cause damaging side effects. You may find your eyesight impacted, and your sleep disturbed. You may also find yourself craving screen time, and angry when you can’t spend the time you want watching, scrolling, or playing.
It can cause relationship issues, as you might find yourself spending more and more time looking at a screen instead of interacting with your partner. It can also contribute to underlying feelings of self-worth if you fail to receive responses to messages, gain a certain number of likes on social media, or fail to win a key level of your preferred gaming fix.
So breaking your screen addiction is beneficial on many levels. But what are the strategies for coping with screen addiction?
Here is a list to get you started.
Limit notifications
If you’re constantly bombarded by new messages, likes, or comments, then you might want to consider turning your notifications off. It’s hard to ignore a phone that is currently buzzing or ringing in the corner of the room.
Remove social media from your phone
Even better than turning off notifications is removing apps altogether. You don’t have to remove the actual accounts, just restrict your app usage to your laptop or PC. You have to think a lot harder about how much time you are spending on screen if you have to move to sit in front of one, rather than simply pulling it out of your pocket or flipping to it from your sofa.
Change location
The location of your technology also has an impact on how much you use it. If you can move your TV out of your bedroom then do so. If you can’t, try unplugging it. Keep your phone charging downstairs at night instead of next to your bed – that way you won’t be tempted to start checking your emails and notifications before you settle for sleep!
you use your phone as your alarm clock, you can use an analogue clock instead. Doing this can prevent hours spent falling down internet rabbit holes. If you have to work in your bedroom, move your computer out of the room at the end of the day if at all possible. Out of sight truly is out of mind.
It’s black and white
One intriguing strategy for coping with screen addiction is to make your phone’s display black and white (or grayscale, as it’s known). App developers and creators commonly use bright colours for logos and notifications, because they are naturally attractive and stimulating, encouraging our brains to interact with them more.
By removing the colours on your display, you reduce the attraction – which is a great strategy for coping with screen addiction.
Screen addiction is a big problem to tackle, but hopefully this article has given you a good place to start.
Author Bio
Hailey Grey is a Digital Content Co-ordinator and Researcher
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect all or some of our beliefs and policy. Any links on this page does not necessarily mean they have been endorsed by Defying Mental Illness.
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