Screen Time

Its been my goal for a couple of weeks to see if I can reduce my screen time. I'm not sure what the right amount of screen time should be, but its probably too high. 

Our phones do so much for us.  I can remember the 90s when a laptop was $3k now for about $800 you can carry the whole laptop in your pocket.  We've come a long way! 

Only now, its the opposite problem. We were thrilled to be able to be in touch with people at the touch of a screen.  In the "old days" when we were kids, we had to arrange a pickup time and place if our parents dropped us off.  And we had to be there on time!  Now we can text "where are you" at any given moment. With an instant response back.

But have we traded our peace of mind for convenience?

A few months back, I became aware that I have become a slave to my phone.  Every beep, every bell ring, means someone trying to tell me something. I stop what I'm doing as if the phone or text message is the most important thing.

But why should we give everyone instant access to our time? 

My solution to reduce phone time is to turn off the notifications and volume.  Yes, sometimes I miss a call. Oh well. And on Mondays, I leave my phone in the bedroom all day, checking it only at lunch and dinner time. 

And that has reduced my screen time by a few hours a week!! 

Our phones shouldn't intrude or take over our lives. They should be a tool to be used for our convenience.  Its easy to stick our noses in our phones and ignore what's going on around us.  But we shouldn't put our phones over the people in our lives.

Yes there are tongue in cheek jokes about families at a restaurant and each person is buried in their phones rather than enjoying each other's company, or, *gasp* even talking to each other. 

Someday there will come a shift, of people so longing to feel connected to each other that they will prefer face to face conversations to bland text messages. 

I hope it doesn't take 50 or 60 years.