To screen or not to screen

How many of you spend a big part of your day glued to your phones and digital devices? This includes TVs and computer screens.

Do you consider it excessive? Are you defending your hours of absorption in a digital display with excuses of keeping up with family and friends, doing puzzles to enhance your brain’s elasticity or honing your gaming skills for the next Olympics? For me, it’s reading books on my phone. OK, and Wordle.

As a society, we’re addicted to our digital devices. In fact there’s a skeletal disorder attributed to people looking at their phones: phone hunchback or tech neck. We’re becoming a bunch of Quasimotos strolling around.

More concerning is when kids are addicted, as well, especially when they are focusing on social media, a prime pathway for bullying and child predators and exploitation. Several countries are banning or limiting social media for children under 13, 15 or 16 years old. These include the UK, Italy, Spain, Denmark, France, Canada and Australia. South Korea, the country where Samsung is headquartered, has banned digital devices from the classroom. Others are in discussions to keep their kids in check from excessive screen time.

I’m starting a challenge next month that includes limiting screen time. It means reading actual books made up of paper pages. I’ll be visiting the library and working through some of the paperbacks on my bookshelves I’ve been intending to read. For Lent, my girlfriend’s daughter has her family of five give up screen time, except for Sunday night when the family chooses one movie to watch. Board games, jigsaw puzzles, reading and practicing musical instruments are added to their leisure time. Imagine your family sitting at a table engaged in a friendly competition of Chutes and Ladders, maybe chess or a hand of gin rummy.

I think it’s a good thing to dial back on our dependence on digital displays and screens, exercise your mind instead of just taking in information spoon fed to you. Reading for pleasure teaches kids to think critically. They learn about other cultures and are forced to use their imaginations, enhancing creativity. There are scads of board games for all ages. Maybe find a hobby that you’ll make a lifelong passion. Visit a museum. Add in a walk or bike ride. Rediscover your family discourse. Think of it as a way to prevent phone hunchback.

Or just indulge in some screen-free “me” time. Go ahead. Grab a book. Your couch and cat, or dog, are waiting for you.