Do you consider the amount of time you spend on screens healthy?

[Guest]

My cell phone battery lasts more than two days, so I've literally never run out of battery in over a year. I don't have access to a pc outside of work, so most of the time and the things I need to solve, personal matters, studies, social life etc are planned through the smartphone. I've always spent a lot of time on screens, but that time only increases; if you add the amount of time spent on TV, PC and smartphone/tablet, it's probably an almost insurmountable time in relation to other activities, even if you go to the gym, have a job, have a social life. The screens just suck us in. Even when I'm playing, I have to check my smartphone several times between games; I used the tactic of turning off the smartphone in single player games to better enjoy the experience without pauses, but in online games I keep using it while playing between games, sometimes getting banned for idle. it's a very difficult habit to change, especially when all things are tied to it, like basic communication, and work, and information. but i feel this is wrong.

While reddit can be a controversial site, there are good communities there like r/nosurf and related. How is your screen time, do you consider yourself satisfied the way you are or would you like to change this habit like me?

[Pray_4_the_End]

I spend most of my time personally in front of screens now a days. I work in a production office so I'm in front dual screens for 8+ hours a day 5 days a week, and most nights I go home and and plop my ass in front of my own dual screen pc setup with an extra 42'in TV right next to them that I have all my consoles hooked up too. My eyes are probably gonna give out on me and fall out of my face at some point in the next 10-20 years if I live that long lol, but some how I've managed to keep my 20/20 vision in tact thus far and I'm in my mid 30's now. It's actually kind of shocking if you consider how long I've been actively playing video games (been my main hobby since I was 5yo and I've never not had a console since then) that my eyes work as well as they do now. 

 

If I had to guess though it's probably terrible for you like most things in excess, and I'd definitely like to cut back on screen time which I have in terms of being on my phone, but I make a living behind computer screens and my favorite hobby is also tied to being behind a screen of some sort so it'll probably only get worse for me as I age. I've fully accept all the long term consequence of this hobby and the digital age we live in, you only live once so fuck it I'ma keep doing what I've been doing lol. 

[CelestialRequiem]

Between work, education and my personal entertainment, no. I use screens a lot and I have hobbies like reading that don't involve electronics because of this. All of this is done from home, of course. 

 

My vision is incredibly poor. My optometrist confessed that I have the vision of a 70 year old. Since I'm farsighted, the lenses of my glasses really zooms in my eyes a comical amount. I even knew what he said was true, as I once traded glasses with my grandmother and noticed no differences in glasses between her and I. Very likely I inherited her vision. 

[Jeanolt]

I actually use the phone less than in previous years but I still don't feel comfortable. My carreer is mostly online so I need to be on my screen, but I'm glad that it isn't a screen-dependant profession and this will be over in a few years. I don't feel bad about videogames because I've always done that, and it replaces my non-existing use of TV. I'm looking forward to read more books this year?

Edited April 19, 2022 by Jeanoltt

[MidnightDragon]

I spend way too much time on screens...but not likely that'll change anytime soon.

[GoonerLukeThe]

I am a screen

[PostalDudeRus]

 

But seriously, I spend less and less time on gaming, I don't have Television at home, more time on books and hobbies such as music producing and voice acting. I would say I had bad habits with gaming and trophies back in a days, but realization of how much time I waste on useless icons on gaming network made me reconsider a lot.

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, PostalDudeRus said:

 

But seriously, I spend less and less time on gaming, I don't have Television at home, more time on books and hobbies such as music producing and voice acting. I would say I had bad habits with gaming and trophies back in a days, but realization of how much time I waste on useless icons on gaming network made me reconsider a lot.

aren't you the guy who makes memes for Vk? great change of habits, I see great posts from you.

 

1 hour ago, Jeanoltt said:

TV. I'm looking forward to read more books this year

Same. My dream is to create a healthy habit where I read daily.

2 hours ago, CelestialRequiem said:

Between work, education and my personal entertainment, no. I use screens a lot and I have hobbies like reading that don't involve electronics because of this. All of this is done from home, of course. 

 

My vision is incredibly poor. My optometrist confessed that I have the vision of a 70 year old. Since I'm farsighted, the lenses of my glasses really zooms in my eyes a comical amount. I even knew what he said was true, as I once traded glasses with my grandmother and noticed no differences in glasses between her and I. Very likely I inherited her vision. 

I'm also farsighted, I'm scheduling an appointment with the cornea specialist to see what I can do. 24 years old and my eyesight is getting worse. maybe contact lenses are an alternative to my awful glasses.

Good luck to U.S

2 hours ago, Pray_4_the_End said:

I've fully accept all the long term consequence of this hobby and the digital age we live in, you only live once so fuck it I'ma keep doing what I've been doing lol. 

Bravo. Live once, but live as you wish.

Edited April 19, 2022 by kevao97

[PostalDudeRus]

6 minutes ago, kevao97 said:

aren't you the guy who makes memes for Vk? great change of habits, I see great posts from you.

 

If you mean this, then yes one of my pages for memes and shitposts. Glad you like stuff, thanks.

Edited April 19, 2022 by PostalDudeRus

[HamiTosh]

For me it depends on the feeling.

On work I get tired more easily from staring at a screen mostly because of static things portrayed on display or because some displays are not like gaming monitors with low latency and high Hz/FPS.

When I am gaming I could be playing for 10 hours and not feel any eyes strain.

Of course it is not healthy.

Everyone has their own poison, some smoke,eat junk food, drink, exaggerate sports activity and some have tons of screen time.

I think screen time for that matter is the lesser evil.

[DaivRules]

I look at screens most of my days for work, then I spend between a hour and a half to two hours a day outside of work looking at my phone and generally half an hour either playing my Vita or PS3/PS4. I’m fine with how much time I spend on screens. 
 

[VigilantCrow]

When working onsite I probably do a combined total of 16-17 hours of screen time per day with my gaming. Working from home it goes up to 18-21 hours. 

Is it healthy? Probably not. 

[Honor_Hand]

Not really, I don't consider the time I spend behind screens healthy but it is what it is. I freelance from home and usually spend about 10-12 hours per day working on my PC, and that's almost every day of the week. If I'm not on my PC, then I'm gaming behind a huge TV in my room, so that's more screen hours added to my tally. I'm not that much of an avid mobile user but I do admit to using my phone every now and then whenever I am not near my PC or TV, so yeah, that's more screen time for me.

 

Not sure if my myopia has been getting worse because of it, it probably has. I use my glasses all the time but I feel like my vision keeps getting worse and worse over the years. I am also long overdue for an eye examination and a new pair of glasses so I am not 100% sure how bad it is right now. That being said, I don't foresee ever having to turn away from my screens. Not so much because of my hobby but because my work also has me frequently staring at one for hours on end.

[The Alchemist]

I feel like the overwhelming majority of people today, and definitely myself included, spend too much time on or in front of a screen, whether it's for work, education, or entertainment purposes. It definitely isn't healthy, but what's worse is that I don't think we'll see the full scope of the subsequent damage until much further down the line. Social media and the like is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and how we interact with technology is still evolving. I think the situation will only become more dire as time passes tbh. 

 

On the other hand, you might say 'who cares?' You're not harming anyone by spending time on a screen. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs. I have other interests and hobbies that don't involve screens, and I still socialise with friends and family quite frequently. I'm relatively healthy and fairly happy, so on the whole it kind of balances out, I guess. It's about finding a balance and taking a break every now and again. There are worse things you could be doing... 

[TheFalseDeity]

Between work and gaming there is zero chance that my amount of screen time is anywhere near the realm of healthy. I am unsatisfied having to work but the screen time has nothing to do with that. I do not care in the slightest about whether anything i do is healthy, only whether or not i enjoy it. 

[Dauersack]

No. Honestly given that I spend most of my free time as well as my work time staring at various screens I am surprised that I am not blind yet. If there is a healthy amount, there is no way I am anywhere near it.

[Thedah]

Definitely not healthy. Especially working from home for the past 2 years. I would be looking at a screen 12+ hours a day.

 

One of the main reasons I just left my office job for a job where I'm out in the field for 3/4ths of my day. Although this means I can't game while I "work" anymore ?

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Thedah

[Baranov_925]

Back when my eyesight was getting worse (I was about 13yo), my parents told me that was because of my playing games. 16 years later, my optometrist told me that games/screen wasn't the main reason of my eyesight problems. It was fast growing (in a span of 4 years, I grew from 5'3 to 6'4). So, I would like to consider my time on screens "pretty average". The screen I use in my job is 5 inches diagonal (on my production machine to control it). And since I don't have any social media crap, my time with phone is pretty small.

[TomataEighty9]

Life is screens these days. Probably not healthy  But it is what it is. 

 

I dont worry about it.

[Tirmata]

For sure, no. As I am working from home for past two years (my trophy stats are a good indicator), I am constantly on screen through the day (including during toilet time and yeah I know all of you as well).

 

The only time I don't look any screen during a week are, when I meet with friends/family (although there is a phone checking, say 5-10 mins per hour) and shower I guess. We have screen exposure even in the lifts, cabs and driving now. I try to read often but I use a Kindle which is a screen again. I go gym time to time, but I look TV screen there or the Hiit videos on Youtube. Whenever I eat something I am watching at the same time.

 

This doesn't feel weird on a daily life level, but when you think about it doesn't seem too far away from futuristic movies where everyone in individual cells/VRs all the time, and makes me a bit uncomfortable.

[StewartBros]

I probably do spend a bit too much time looking at screens, but the same probably applies to many of us.  Having worked from home for 2 years, I'm spending my shifts working on a screen, although when it's quiet and I don't have any work to do at a given time, I will read books to give my eyes a rest from the screen.  Prior to the pandemic, I would spend the full 8 hours of a shift working with a dual screen setup in an office that wasn't always as well lit as it could be, which did result in some eye strain and the odd headache from time to time.

 

Obviously when I am gaming or watching a film, I'm looking at a screen again, although I have tried to limit my gaming a bit in recent months.  Any time I pick up my phone, that's another screen.  If you work in/for any kind of office, software/tech company, bank, call centre etc, then you will almost certainly be looking at one screen at least for most of your shift, and when you go home and watch TV, check social media, play a game and so on, then your eyes are still focusing on a screen of some sort.

 

I try to combat it by reading a lot of books, drawing artwork, and going for (sometimes very long) walks on my days off.  Sometimes on these walks, I will even leave my phone at home so that I can truly give my eyes a rest for a few hours.  It's nice to just escape from the world for a short time.

[AJ_Radio]

I remember a time when the average person would spend one, maybe two hours or so a day on the internet. Usually to check e-mail, surf on America Online (You Got Mail!). 
 

For the most part, the people who used the internet the most were your computer nerds, gaming geeks and tech wizards who were interested in the tech. 
 

Every Tom, Dick and Harry spends hours each day on the internet, generally social media and is more obsessed with an electronic screen than those old computer geeks were back in the day. 
 

The internet used to be an escape from the real world. Now it is the real world. 
 

Society became more cynical and negative as a result.

Edited April 26, 2022 by AJ_Radio

[DaivRules]

25 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

 

I remember a time when the average person would spend one, maybe two hours or so a day on the internet. Usually to check e-mail, surf on America Online (You Got Mail!).

 

And the rest of their time was spent watching television. 
 

26 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

The internet used to be an escape from the real world. Now it is the real world. 

For when you are referring to, they were more than likely watching Real World. As well as other reality television that occupied so much of the cable to and airwaves in the 90’s. 
 

Not as much has changed as you are alluding to. 

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, DaivRules said:

And the rest of their time was spent watching television.

 

Computers were more expensive back then. People think paying $1500 - 2000 for a custom PC desktop is bad (with the chip shortage and all), you had to pay that amount for a halfway decent PC in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Windows 98/2000/XP was far less reliable too. Normies wouldn't tolerate that crap, so you had a nerd culture dominate the internet in those days.

 

1 hour ago, DaivRules said:

For when you are referring to, they were more than likely watching Real World. As well as other reality television that occupied so much of the cable to and airwaves in the 90’s. 
 

Not as much has changed as you are alluding to. 

 

I never cared for the Real World, although MTV was practically responsible for the reality TV craze that took off in the 2000s. The internet was a goldmine then, free from corporate influence and all those morons who didn't have the patience to understand how to connect to the internet.

 

Now you just have a smartphone that T-Mobile or Verizon supplied you complete with internet so any idiot can access the web with just a couple swipes. Now you might as well consider YouTube and other huge platforms to be Cable TV 2.0.

[You]

2 hours ago, DaivRules said:

And the rest of their time was spent watching television. 

For when you are referring to, they were more than likely watching Real World. As well as other reality television that occupied so much of the cable to and airwaves in the 90’s. 
 

Not as much has changed as you are alluding to. 

 

LOL. Are you joking? Screen time usage is at endemic proportions for most people, especially on smartphones.

 

Certainly in Japan anyway, people can't even walk down the street half the time without looking at their phones, I even see people using their smartphones one handed while they are biking. I regularly have to avoid people on the footpath because they're going to crash into me because they haven't seen me yet...

I've been at a restaurant where an entire family sat next to us, mum dad son and daughter all blankly sit at their phones while they wait for the food to arrive. Then they eat while looking at smartphones. The mum goes to the toilet, she takes her smartphone with her. I've got an incredible picture of Odaiba  that I took many years ago, spoiled by some youths sat on the grass all sat looking down at their phones.

 

When I first moved to Japan in 2008 people were very chatty, i'd get random people talking to me all the time, I've seen first hand times change. Everyone is using a smartphone.

God knows how much screen time people have in their homes, but I dare say all this Covid nonsense has only made things worse.

 

When I go out for a walk I listen to MP3s on my Vita in my back pocket, resting the eyes. But hey even i'm just in a trance in my mind thinking about stuff on the Internet. If I don't take my phone to the toilet, I somehow feel I've wasted 5 minutes of my life, just sat there, not consuming something.

I fear that our brain chemistry and social interactions have changed for the worst. But hey, the young generation don't know any different. Maybe it just sucks more for us old dudes who remembered the 80s and 90s, sure things were shitter in other ways back then. But at least when you went out with your mates they weren't checking their phones every 5 minutes or at a meal going for a 30 minute shit because obviously, they're just sat there doing something on their phones.

 

I think the issue of amount of screen time isn't necessarily the problem, although of course that is also a factor. There's too much content to consume every single day, even if you somehow dedicated an entire 24 hours of your day, still not enough time. Also, the fact the entire world is effectively in the palm of the hands, but that you don't need to access all that knowledge all at once. It's just making people lazy and not bother learning anything. I'm guilty too. I don't even bother trying to figure out where a location is, I just arrive at the train station and then use my GPS. Can't read that bit of Japanese? I'll just scan it with my phone.

 

And a side note, despite spending 30+ years of my life constantly looking at screens for an unhealthy amount of time. Still don't need glasses.

Going out into the sun and not wearing sun glasses to protect your eyes, UV rays do way more damage to your eyes than screens will ever do, worst you'll have is probably becoming shortsighted if you don't look at far away distances every now and again and exercise your eye muscles.