Screen time, but make it meaningful
I wanna preface this post by saying that it came out much longer than I anticipated. I usually write 500 words tops per post, but by the time I was done writing and trimming down this one, it had a whopping 1200 words. Please don't feel put off by its length. I encourage readers to just skim through it to find bits and pieces that you like. You don't need to read the whole thing. Go ahead. Hope you enjoy!
I keep seeing posts from many different people, throughout many different months, discussing the very same thing: how it is a struggle to live with a smartphone. About notifications hell, doom scrolling, social media addiction. It's like (almost) everyone is suffering from the same thing over and over and over and over again.
So I wanted to share a little bit about my journey with screen time. Maybe it'll help someone, who knows.
It started with turning off notifications
I've never had social media notifications turned on on my phone, going all the way back to my first smartphone with Facebook on it. That alone always helped me, and it is crazy to me that most people have it on. It truly feels like a special kind of hell. Just having it off, with the app not on your phone's main screen, can already go a long way. The temptation to get distracted is greatly reduced. Maybe you'll even forget to check it some days. I know that helped me -- just ask any of my friends and they'll tell you how much I "suck" at replying to DMs on social media. Oh well.
However, it was only on the spring of 2024 (in the Southern hemisphere) when I actively decided to rid myself of social media and consciously reduce screen time. Before then, I was just loosely setting time limits on Instagram and small stuff like that -- and barely following them.
Deleting the apps
Turns out when I actually wanted to do it, it was quite simple: I deleted all social apps from my phone. It worked pretty well for me. Deleting the whole account felt like "too big" of a step at the time (also I have some references of professionals/artists/restaurants on my accounts). So I just deleted the damn app and if I had to look up something, I accessed it on my computer. The user experience is awful, so it sure as hell helped me keep away from Instagram. :)
If I had to redownload the app for whatever reason, I deleted it right after. See, you don't need to go cold turkey on social media if you don't want to, or if it's too difficult/you already tried it and didn't work out.
Sharing stuff
When I feel like sharing stuff with others, I share it on my blog. I've even considered creating a mailing list and emailing pics/links to my friends and family, but scrapped the idea. Most of them don't have the habit of checking inbox for emails from real people. I also used for a while alternate stuff like Telegram stories and WhatsApp status. It helps with that addictive urge to share a pic -- plus Telegram has a limit for free users (god bless capitalism?).
It worked out pretty well for me. The need to share things reduced progressively with time. Nowadays, I barely remember to do it. Maybe two or three times a month, just to remind people that I am, indeed, alive, or when it's something really special.
Meaningful screen time, at last
Honestly nowadays, when I'm using my phone, it feels much more meaningful. Now, instead of doom scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest (aka AI slop hell), I scroll through my Inoreader dashboard or my Raindrop bookmarks.1 My new main apps for passing the time on my phone and that are not designed to algorithmically suck me in until I lose any sense of self (it's fun).
And yes, it did take time to curate these spaces, but here's the thing: if something takes time, it is almost certainly more meaningful to you. There's thought behind it, intention. It's work you put into creating your feeds, hand-picking what you want to see daily. And this work is so rewarding, it replaces the sinking feeling of desperation when you're scrolling through hundreds (sometimes thousands!) of "content" thrust on your face by The Algorithm.2
Instead of mind-numbingly watching TikToks/Reels, I play games like Outlanders or Waffle or Patterned or Mahjong and I don't feel bad about it. That was something I realized a while before this detox journey, right after I got my Switch: playing games feels so much better than scrolling. For me, it's not about avoiding screens like the plague, but what I'm doing and how I'm feeling when I'm using it.
I'm not talking about productivity here. I'm not about that life (lol). I'm talking about good, quality free time, when you do things that are not productive, just fun -- like playing a video game or reading a blog post about someone's life, or casually scrolling through subreddits like r/rain or r/pixelart.
Going analogue
Sometimes I find myself picking up my phone... and having nothing to do on it. It's that nagging feeling of "I should be checking some form of timeline", and it's now so much clearer when that happens. It's also stronger than me, apparently.
So I got myself analogue stuff to occupy my hands and brain with. I'm not crafty, so a simple crossword puzzle book has been doing the trick for me. A collection of short stories, either on my Kindle or in a very slim printed form, something I can carry with me without feeling burdened.
Hell, I got a cheap point-and-click digital camera so I wouldn't have to grab my phone to take pictures.3 I went back to using a dated planner -- analogue-style. I do have a digital calendar with a few notifications set, but my week and to-dos, are written down inside my planner. Even my habit tracker moved to the paper planner. My period tracker. Whatever could fit there, there it lives now.
Of course, it's not perfect. Sometimes I forget to check the week. Other times I forget to write down something. But you know what? So is life. When I used mostly digital tools I also forgot about things. I'd set up alarms in the wrong days, or the wrong time. It's ok. It's bound to happen one way or another.4 What I know is that writing down on paper helps me remember things by myself without having to actually look at it. It works a lot better than typing it on a screen. There's actually some science behind this.
Having dedicated gadgets for specific things is also helpful. I guess this is something a lot of people are realizing separately but together, considering the amount of videos YouTube recommends me about "going analogue" or using "iPods and handheld consoles" to cut back on phone screen time.
In conclusion (lol)
There's a lot of things to explore to cut back on doom scrolling. At the very, very least, turn off the notifications. Ideally, delete that damn app. Rediscover small pleasures. Reading, gaming, drawing, painting, photography, writing, blogging (!!!), coding. Curate your feeds with the care they deserve. We can all do it. It doesn't have to be horrible. It doesn't have to mean throwing your smartphone away and deleting everything -- that's not realistic for most of us at this point in time.
If you've read the whole thing, thank you. If you've only read one or other paragraph, thank you. If you want to share something about your own experiences with managing screen time, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment on my brand-new guestbook.
That's it for today. Toodles!
You can reply to this post via email or leave a message on my guestbook.