Celebrating Screen Free Week
Hi there, and welcome back.
This month we’re celebrating Screen Free Week, and with good reason. The time we spend on our phones—estimates vary widely but the range is worryingly high, from 2.8 to 6.5 hours every day—has not been shown to make us happier. In fact, often quite the contrary. Smartphone use, especially when we access social media, often makes the user feel left out, lonely and/or inadequate.
I was going to look for some studies that show you why time on our phones isn’t contributing to our wellbeing and what might work better. However, on my way home from town earlier this week I realised I didn’t really need to find scholarly work, because babies are perfectly capable of teaching us.
I’d boarded my usual bus home, and sat down beside a mother with a baby sleeping in a pram. We restarted with a jolt, causing the baby to wake and start crying. The mother, who was scrolling through her phone feeds, didn’t look up but absent-mindedly began rocking the pram. The baby cried louder. Worried her child was irritating other passengers, the mother quickly called up a cartoon sequence on the phone and put it in front of the baby’s face. Now, unable to see her mother at all, the baby began to wail. In apparent desperation, the mother dropped her phone into her bag and picked up the child, looking at her and talking softly. At once the baby stopped crying and became calm, gazing into her mother’s eyes gratefully and listening to her voice. As she settled, she also started looking around her, listening to the sounds and studying the other passengers. Learning.
Phones usually tell us only what we already know or would rather not know. Interacting directly with someone who really matters to us, on the other hand, soothes us and makes us feel wanted, cared for, and valued.
Scrolling on your phone or spending time with someone you love? There’s really no contest.
Until next time, all the best,
Linda