Nowadays, everyone has a phone, and many people possess or utilize computers. However, phones (as well as computers) are ruining people’s mental health. Teenagers spend way too much time on their phones and computers. For example, the average time I spend on my phone used to be 2 hours and 30 minutes per day, and during school, I used my computer so much. When we are on our electronics all of the time, we don’t feel motivated to socialize with other people or be productive with our time. Our free time and hours living get wasted. Electronics are addicting, and being on electronics all the time has serious detrimental effects to one’s health. For example, social media has caused an increase in teen anxiety: teenagers get stressed out about their online image, and sometimes teenagers believe that their online image is more substantial than their real life being. In addition, using technology a lot induces people to be more inactive – and being inactive for long periods of time is bad for your health in numerous ways. According to an article by abc news, inactivity nowadays is as detrimental as smoking. Inactivity, which has increased due to expanding use of various forms of technology, is one of the leading causes of death nowadays.
What are steps we can do to cut down on our usage of technology:
Download the app “Forest” (from the app store on a phone and from an extension on a computer): I downloaded forest about a month ago and it is now one of my favorite apps. It costs $1.99 on the app store but the charge is utterly worth-it.The app encourages the user to plant trees and/or bushes, offering various time spans for which the user can select to build his/her tree. The longer the time span, the more elegant the plant that is grown will be. While the plant is being grown, the user cannot leave the app, or else his/her plant will die and the user’s forest will carry a barren tree. For each tree that is successfully grown, the user will earn coins (trees that take longer to develop will grant more coins). When a user gets a certain amount of coins (2,500), he/she can choose to spend those fake coins on building a tangible, authentic tree (a nonprofit organization builds the tree). Therefore, not only are you enhancing your own well-being (and therefore the well-being of those around you), but you are also protecting the environment we all live in!
Track your screen time – create a goal declaring how long you would like to spend on your phone each day and try really hard to restrict your phone usage to solely that amount of time. A nice app that helps you control your screen time is “Moment” (free on the app store). Moment is a free app that you can download from the app store. If you keep it in your phone’s background, it will show you how much time you spend on your phone each day. Another app is “Screen time”. Screen time is great and I fully recommend it! The free option helps you acknowledge how much time you spend on your phone, but the premium version allows you to monitor your screen time as well.
Take breaks from social media and Netflix: Social media lures many of us to our phones, and it is nearly impossible for some of us to resist the temptation to use our electronics when we desire. Electronics give you temporary comfort, satisfaction, and happiness, but are extremely detrimental in the long as well as short terms. The cons of using electronics most often outweigh the pros when teenagers use them the way they are using them now. Delete Instagram for a day. Just try it for a day, then maybe once a week. Next, maybe try to limit the hours you use social media to only certain points during the day. For example, say “at 7 A.M. I will check snapchat and then I won’t check it again until tomorrow at 7 A.M.”. Next, although it might be hard and frightening, lose your snapchat streaks. Streaks on snapchat give teenagers so much unnecessary anxiety that we can easily suppress. Streaks are not very important. Rather than continuously sending pictures of our faces to one another, we can text our true friends once in a while to make plans and communicate face-to-face. If losing your streaks is too upsetting for you, you can at least designate certain time periods to which you will use snapchat and try to restrain from using it for the rest of the day.
I promise that when you succeed in limiting your screen time, you will feel much happier, healthier, and energetic. In addition, I am very interested in hearing your complaints and struggles that relate to this article and helping you overcome them. Comment whatever thoughts, questions, or concerns you may have down below, and I will try my best to respond.