My iPhone has been telling me I spend eight hours a day on it. I scoured TikTok for food recommendations while watching the latest episode of Jujutsu Kaisen. I also used it for more important things like checking work emails, paying my bills, skimming news headlines and shopping (of course) but that’s no excuse for being pretty much glued to my device.

Eight isn’t exactly an auspicious number when it comes to duration of tech use, especially since eight is also half of my waking hours and most of my device time was spent on non-essential tasks. I’m not waiting for a New Year’s resolution to tell me that this needs to change, so I’m taking away the vice from device. Get it? Hilarious.

Importance of tech in life and potential repercussions

Technology and tech devices are part and parcel of our lives whether it’s iPhones and MacBooks, or Android phones and Windows laptops. If you’re a gamer, you might also spend time on a console like the Nintendo Switch or PS5 or echo “PC master race”.

We live in a digital ecosystem and to abstain from technology is to forgo convenience and accessibility. Remote working, digital entertainment, picking up skills, keeping up with the latest trends… everything comes and goes at the click of a button. Gone are the days of floppy disks and cassette tapes – pictures from our latest vacation are automatically uploaded to the Cloud. What even is a Cloud – a digital, pixellated haven? I digress.

After periods of prolonged tech use, which can include spending too many hours watching videos, gaming or trawling social media for news and updates on other people’s social feeds, you might start to feel like you’re alone in a crowded room. Isolation is one of the potential disadvantages of technology over-use and over-dependence. It can also hurt our mental well-being in other ways.  In Singapore, two in five people have personally experienced mental health struggles, and this statistic increases to one in two in young people aged 15 to 35.

However, there are ways to put some distance between ourselves and technology and protect our mental well-being.   

Signs you need a digital detox

Warning signs of excessive tech use can be physical or psychological. Social isolation and/or depression and anxiety could be the first sign of overuse of technology. People who had more negative social interactions online and who were more prone to social comparison experienced higher levels of depression and anxiety¹.

Some other ways these psychological downsides may manifest themselves:

• Cyberbullying
• FOMO (Fear of missing out)
• Feeling angry or upset over online content

Physical symptoms of excessive tech use include:

• Eyestrain
• Poor posture
• Sleep problems
• Reduced physical activity

The physical symptoms tend to be easier to spot and manage on your own, usually by instilling good habits like taking regular breaks, correcting your posture and working positions, and so on.

However, combating the less obvious psychological symptoms requires more effort. What are the benefits of putting in the work, and how can you start?

Benefits of putting some distance between yourself and technology

Before I get to the ways to reduce your screen time, you might be asking what you’d stand to gain by doing so in the first place. Besides getting back your time from the endless pit of scrolling TikTok, the upsides vary across individuals. However, there’ll be times when you just can’t ignore the phone, like when you receive a call from a courier staff telling you nobody’s home to receive your parcel. I’d probably answer that.

Some commonly seen improvements after reducing screen time are:

1. Better mental acuity
   Receiving notifications for comments and likes on your latest social media posts triggers dopamine-driven reward circuitry and feeds social validation. However, attending to every menial notification that pops up on your devices reduces your attention span for other things. Taking back control enables you to stay sharp.
   
   
2. Reduced stress
   Limiting the time you spend on tech devices reduces the opportunity for social comparison which in turn improves overall contentedness. Trimming your exposure to news also helps to prevent information overload, which some may find stressful. Overall, I’ve found this to be the biggest benefit in my life since reducing my screen time.
   
   
3. Improved social interactions
   The quality of your conversations will naturally improve when you put away your smartphone and start investing in the people around you whom you actively choose to spend time with.
   
   
4. Better control of your time
   Singaporeans spend 6 hours 37 minutes² on the internet every day, and that’s a good third of our time spent awake. There’s always the option of investing that time into other hobbies and reconnecting with yourself instead – gardening, fishing, pottery or anything you’re interested in.
    

5 ways to reduce your screen time

Making a conscious decision to unplug doesn’t necessarily mean locking away your devices and going off-the-grid into the mountaintops to immerse yourself in a meditative retreat. These five suggestions are pretty painless yet the payoff is huge.
 

1. Take intentional breaks from devices
   Recognise when you start feeling “doped up” from technology, hopping from one video to the next. I personally acknowledge it and move on to reading a book or taking a walk when it kicks in. While it might seem contradictory to suggest using an app when I’m talking about curbing screen time, there are actually productivity apps such as Forest that can help limit your app usage when you’re engaged in other activities.
   
   
2. Turn off push notifications for certain apps
   You have the option to turn off push notifications for apps which are intrusive. Case in point, I’ve turned off notifications for apps that send me daily vouchers and promotions that I don’t use.
   
   
3. Schedule “do not disturb” time when you don’t want distractions
   This could be during working hours or an evening with your family and loved ones. Intentionally putting time aside for meaningful things and your phone away during these moments can help you to really immerse yourself in conversations and your work, improving the quality of time spent with the people you treasure, as well as your focus and concentration levels at work.
   
   
4. Set your own tech-free hours
   This one’s more of a rule to set for yourself. Setting certain rules such as not using devices 30 minutes before bedtime or in the first 30 minutes upon waking can improve your overall sleep quality and reduce mental and emotional overstimulation.
   
   
5. Spring-clean your social media
   Social media impacts your mental health, and according to HelpGuide, there’s an increasing corelation between social media and self-esteem as our world becomes ever more digital. Personally, I’ve found eliminating negative material from my content diet useful. For instance, I’ve unfollowed social media accounts and stopped engaging with content that makes me feel bad.

These are important steps in protecting your mental well-being as social media platforms run on algorithms and will only keep serving you more of the same content you already engage with – a pattern which could quickly make a small problem grow bigger. It’s important to be especially mindful of the content you consume and cultivate good tech habits in order to build a better relationship between you and the digital world.

^Notes

^{1. Source: National Library of Medicine, Social Networking Sites, Depression, and Anxiety: A Systematic Review, accessed on 21 August 2023.}

^{2. Source: We Are Social, Digital 2023, accessed on 10 August 2023.}