Are You Using Your Gadgets Too Much? Here’s How to Stop Excessive Screen Time

What do you do the moment you wake up? Some of us pray, meditate, or say our mantra out loud, but the norm has been to check our phone for any notification.

How much of your day goes to mindlessly browsing your gadgets? According to a study, American teens and young adults spend an average of 7.5 hours of screen time per day and that doesn’t include the time on devices used for school activities.

Teens use their gadgets mostly for videos

It also showed that teens used gadgets the most for videos, then gaming, and followed by social media. The number of hours clocked in is bothersome because many studies had found that excessive screen time has adverse effects.

It increases your risk of developing diabetes and obesity and may cause sleep issues. It can also lead to mental health problems, such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

Among teens, the overuse of devices that emit harmful rays could cause eye problems or eye strains. It also could eat the time that should be used for physical activities and on top of that, they may have issues with focus and attention.

Moreover, because they value relationships, they could get used to socializing online rather than in person. This could ultimately lead to isolation, Nicole Beurkens, a clinical psychologist, said.

For young adults and professionals, their mental health could suffer because prolonged screen time could affect their productivity, which could result in more stress.

How to Reduce Your Screen Time

Most of us even wouldn’t believe the amount of time we waste on our gadgets, which is why it is important to track your usage. We tend to underestimate that’s why we need to see it for ourselves – this can be possible through the use of tracking functions of your smartphones.

If you really can’t fight the urge to check your phone, there are apps that, when activated, prohibit the use of other programs for a designated time. This could be helpful if you want to focus on a task for a time being.

Using your phone while working can hamper productivity

You can also go to your device’s settings and switch off notifications, which is a very simple yet effective step to stop you from using your gadget too much. Admit it, it’s quite hard to focus on what you’re doing when your phone keeps buzzing and there is this certain urge to check on it.

Avoid bringing your phone in the bedroom

Then, you can create a phone-free area – a designated space where it is not allowed to use your gadget. For example, some people don’t bring their smartphones in their bedrooms to get quality sleep.