If Someone Told You That You Were Wasting Your Life, Would You Do Something About It?
By Maddie Freeman, LookUp Social Innovator
According to CNN, teenagers spend, on average, 7 hours a day on their screens. Most of us already knew this shocking statistic but my concern is the mass amount of time spent on social media, the true beast causing the widespread issues in our society. You can always get more money, but you can never get more time; it is precious.
My personal screen time was 8 hours a day, with at least 5 of those hours on social media platforms. Just my social media use alone added up to 35 hours a week, which is 1,825 hours (about 76 full days) spent scrolling per year on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter... How could this be? Looking back on my life now, I don’t recall any memories of time being wasted, or even specific moments when I felt fulfilled or grateful that I just spent hours on Instagram. There was not a single time I thought, “I am so glad I wasted 5 hours of my day doing this.” All I remember is being at concerts, driving with friends, going to school, or in other words, living. I have since made drastic changes in my life since this discovery. This is what we should be doing, but most of us just get sucked into a YouTube rabbit hole instead of spending time in the real world. This is not completely our fault. It is the way these apps were designed. There is a powerful computer pointed at your brain at all times with a singular goal to keep you hooked for as long as possible for the company’s own profit.
But imagine if you changed your relationship with these manipulative apps, and used those 76 days of the year in a healthier way.
To put my point into perspective, think of it this way: if I swapped out this time each week with a 35-hour job, making minimum wage in Colorado, I would have an annual salary of $20,202. But instead, I am just throwing this valuable time away, making $0 while sacrificing my mental health and basically paying big-tech developers. I do so willingly, and so does everyone else! This needs to change. Another example is that on average, it takes 480 hours of practice to become fluent in a different language. If I swapped out these 35 hours spent on socials and used it to learn a new language, it would only take me about 14 weeks to fluently learn Spanish, French, etc. I know these examples are a little extreme, and it is hard to imagine yourself spending 35 hours a week practicing a language, but we are already spending these mass amounts of time on something pointless. So, why not shouldn’t we shift some of that time into other productive avenues?
It is pivotal to realize that the cliché “time is money” is TRUE. Our precious time deserves to be filled with fun, healthy, real activities, NOT mind-numbing, depressing media that ends up leaving us feeling more empty than before. Every minute consciously spent away from social media is a win. Especially as a young person, it pains me to imagine wasting away my teenage years and not making the best of my youth. This is a problem that most of us fall victim to, and I know it is easier said than done to just “get off your phone.” Facebook made $84 billion in 2020 from ad revenue alone, giving them more incentive to strategize ways to keep you addicted to their app. These new legislations and changing business algorithms of social media platforms are crucial to aiding the masses in reducing screen time. But until they change, we have to take these small steps ourselves by logging off more often.
I would like to share some helpful tips I used to change my relationship with social media in hopes that it will help you, too. It all started with a month-long cleanse from all socials through the No Social Media November Challenge Campaign that put into perspective how much time I had to explore other activities. A month can seem a bit long, so I would suggest at least a one-week cleanse to learn about your technology use. After the social media cleanse, I downloaded an app called Moment which allows you to do a 2-week boot camp with small daily challenges that help immensely with decreasing screen time. Then, I kept the apps that I really liked, and deleted others that I used but wasn’t that attached to. For example, I kept Snapchat, but deleted Instagram and Twitter. I would suggest avoiding apps that allow you to continuously scroll forever on a feed because this is where an app’s algorithm traps you and keeps you addicted. Something I found helpful is to evaluate the way you use an app when deciding whether to keep them. I personally vowed to stop looking at other people’s posts and the Discover page on Snapchat, while allowing myself to still use the app to interact with others with chat and take photos. Another tip is to set screen time limits on specific apps in your settings to limit the amount of time you spend on a daily basis. This is a great way to hold yourself accountable. Another huge help for me was turning off notifications on socials. At the end of the day, you don’t need to instantly see who liked your post or who sent you a picture of the corner of their face. This helped me pick up my phone less.
These are just some tips that truly helped me, and I can promise you won’t regret taking these steps to LIVE BETTER. We were given lives so that we can LIVE. Remember this as you consider your own technology use.
