Americans on average spend 3 to 5 hours a day behind their computer, phone, or tablet doing non-productive work
Brendan Buchard
Americans on average spend 3 to 5 hours a day behind their computer, phone, or tablet doing non-productive work and wonder why they don’t have time with their families or goals that they are trying to achieve. My goal for this post is to highlight some of the actions that I’ve taken to reduce my social media time/screen time and to continue with my minimalist journey.
I am active on Facebook Groups and have started to post on Instagram, but I’ve been doing my best to limit the time I spend behind my computer looking at all social media posts. My goal is to quickly glance at Facebook and appreciate the birthday reminders of friends and family, but I’ve had some serious issues with comparing myself to some of my friends. Jealousy crept into my day due to the fact that several of my friends had been able to travel quite a bit, even during COVID. I understood that this was unhealthy for me, and I quickly switched from reviewing facebook daily to reviewing posts every week.
Example of my Facebook Post
Also, I only post positive things in my Facebook feed. For example:
Beautiful sunrise this morning… The clouds were amazing! Enjoy the day!
Paul Houcek’s Facebook post on Sunday, May 22, 2022
I have received many positive messages back from my friends and family that they appreciate my photos during my walks in Chicago. I’ve also stopped looking at the political comments or highlights of disasters. The most significant impact on my life was that social media and technology were stealing my time and attention, and it has distracted me from what I should be doing to move my life forward.
Technology and our mental health
We have technology that allows us to work 24 hours a day and social media apps that can keep your mind. In my experience, I wasn’t going to bed on time, and once I went to bed, I couldn’t get sleep. This ultimately reduced the number of hours that I was sleeping. In addition, I was impacting my sacred relationship. I was constantly distracted and not talking to the one I loved most.
When emailing, texting, or generally posting online, we are much more likely to misinterpret what others are saying. We all know people who pose very mean comments online than they intend – just because they can. In-person communication is a skill developed over time; increased use of technology is hampering our communication skills, such as our ability to articulate what we want to say and how we interpret others’ physical cues.
Humans are better at communicating face-to-face. It is said that key items are sent in a post/e-mail/text versus communicating face to face.
Suggestions:
1) Get into the habit of turning off your computer especially one hour before you go to bed.
2) Set limits for your time behind your computer. Look at ways to stop work when you are done for the day. Also, do not look at your work computer when you are on vacation.
3) Limit the amount of time you spend behind your smartphone. If you are going to lunch with friends, turn the phone off.
