I work in a high growth startup and I want to have less screen time
swapping screen time for green time
There’s one number that I’m a little ashamed of. A number that makes me kinda worry people would judge me if they found it out. It’s not my age. It’s not the number of romantic partners I’ve had. It’s not the number of Selling Sunset spin-offs that are in my most recently viewed list on Netflix… It’s my screen time.
According to Apple, looking at my phone screen is basically a full time job (one that at current Australian minimum wage I’d be earning AUD$42,255 a year for).
But, let’s be frank, I’m not the only one, these days the average person spends 6 hrs 37 mins a day on the internet. That’s 2,414 hours per year. Almost 101 days per year, basically 1/3 of the year, spent online. 101 days, basically 1/3 of the year, spent looking at a screen.
“Why is this something we should care about?” You might ask. And I’d answer that with; higher screen time has been linked to increased risk of depression and anxiety, insomnia and sleep disturbance. That’s not great from a wellbeing perspective, I personally plan to live long and prosper (...okay maybe I shouldn’t have chosen this moment to unveil my Star Trek nerdom, but here we are) and too often fall into the trap of thinking exercise and good food = healthy, when in reality there’s a lot more - like screen time - affecting our overall health.
Throw in the fact that studies have also linked screen time with decreases in creativity and focus and we’re really covering the whole work/life situation here aren’t we?
The good news? At least 11 independent studies have found that doing the opposite to staring at a screen, let’s call it “getting outdoors and into nature”, is associated with improved sleep quality and quantity, decreases in cortisol (our main stress hormone), increases in creative problem-solving and improvements in general wellbeing.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a war on tech. I get a lot of value from my phone and things like my airpods and laptop, and I don’t want to stop using them. This is definitely not a “throw your tech out the window, stop shaving and rename yourself Rainbow Destiny” kind of thing.
But when I see that little screen-time notification pop-up each week, I can’t help but think of how that time might’ve been better spent, and how more optimal I might’ve been functioning / feeling if I shifted things at least a little bit the other way.
So in the end, there’s no answer really here, just an update from me, and hopefully one you can take a little something from, that in 2023 I’ll be swapping the screen time for some green time, just a little bit each day, and seeing what happens.
Small step? Yes. But a giant leap for a girl working in a high growth startup surrounded by tech who wants to reduce it a little bit at a time.