How to reduce bad screen time, while needing good screen time?

17 October 2024

Mary Grace Descourouez, writing for Stanford Lifestyle Medicine:

Additional studies found that adults who engage in excessive screen time or have a diagnosed smartphone addiction had lower gray matter volume. Gray matter is brain tissue essential for daily human functioning and is responsible for everything from movement to memory to emotions. Gray matter volume naturally decreases as we age, so along with reducing screen time, engaging in activities that maintain our gray matter volume and promote brain health, such as exercise and movement, restorative sleep, social engagement, and stress management, is crucial.

I think it’s a given that an excess of time spent gazing at computer and laptop screens is detrimental to our health and well-being. But these devices are deeply ingrained in our lives, so going cold-turkey, or switching to a dumbphone, AKA a featurephone, aren’t exactly realistic options. Even though some people have reported a marked difference in well-being, from doing so.

Nor are the simplistic calls made by some to go “back to the old ways”, because it worked for them, in their day. For my part, being able to do so much, from a device in my hand, sees me lead a life and work style that earlier generations of my family could not have possibly imagined. While I’m full well aware of the dangers of too much screen time, I’m not about to dumb-down anytime time soon.

We get around over-doing screen time by getting outside for two to three hours daily, weather permitting, in the early evenings. Naturally we carry our phones with us, in the event family or friends need to make contact. Moving at a brisk pace for several hours though is not much conducive to looking at a screen, so we score at least a few screen-free hours. Taking a solid break like this seems more sensible than trying to ration, or restrict, looking at screens, at other times.

At least, that’s our experience.