It’s no secret that our phones shape, effect and control each of us. I don’t say that lightly. Infinitely scrolling, infinitely discontent. That’s us. We live in an unfortunate reality.
Picture this: a life in which an individual wakes up, maybe checks the newspaper. Goes to work, converses and interacts with humans in a concentrated way. Eats meals without a glowing screen nearby. Drives home and admires nature. Arrives, spends time with family. Listens to them talk, their concerns and words are priority number 1. Eats dinner, maybe goes for a walk, feels and appreciates the cool breeze. Gazes at the night time sky in amazement of God’s unmatched handiwork. Finally, goes to bed. No glowing screen ruling and dictating actions.
If the scenario above seems hard to imagine, it’s mainly because it’s non existent in our current world. In an early draft of this post, I had a second scenario of our lives with phones. I just couldn’t keep it in though, it was all too miserable.
TOO MUCH FOR TOO LONG
Addiction and conviction, that’s what triggered all this.
Truth is “Project Screentime” was in the works for a long time. It just materialized itself in a way I didn’t see coming. For the longest i’ve had this feeling of too much screen time in my life. I’ve never had the numbers to prove it, though. You know… the “my head hurts after looking at a 5 inch screen for too long” feeling. I think we all have had that once or twice. Truthfully, I was sick of it. I was sick of not being in the moment. I was sick of being dependent on some device. I was sick of not feeling human. I wanted to be someone who cherishes people’s words and wants to listen and be there 100%.
My phone was disallowing that. It was an enabler of friction. My phone had slowly become a buffer to me and the real world.
I found that disgusting. I lived the majority of life without this device, and now this? This is the end? This phone is my final resting place of consciousness? The reality of that scenario was just unacceptable to me. I knew I wanted to change, but had no idea how.
HELLO iOS 12 and SCREENTIME
To say the least, I was elated when Apple announced ‘Screentime’. My grudges with the phone seemingly became other people’s and the stories were becoming mainstream. People were addicted to their phones. Or maybe more accurately, to the content on their phones. Behind the scenes, Apple was working on health features for an upcoming software release. Whether Apple timed it right or just played catch up, the release was happily welcomed by many.
Essentially, “Project Screentime” started with Apple’s most recent software, iOS 12. iOS 12 has a feature I’ve long waited for and long have been afraid of; a health feature called ‘Screentime.’ Basically ‘Screentime’ was pitched as a report of such that anyone could access to view their phone usage.
Apple was touting many useful features inside ‘Screentime.’ Sure there were apps that already kind of did this sort of thing, Moment for one. But the way Apple could seamlessly tie in all these features was going to be an unrivaled effort. ‘Screentime’ released in the fall of 2018.
So upon release of iOS 12 I started tracking my time.. Scary stuff. To say it kindly, my phone was eating away at my life. This wasn’t about me wanting to feel better than others and compare. This was genuinely about improving myself and my health. Like I mentioned, I was sick to my stomach and ready for my usage truth.
THE UGLY TRUTH
At a glance, my screen time averaged 3 hours and about 30 minutes per day. That was tough to swallow. The number that really did me in though, was my weekly number. It was up around 25 hours per week. 25 hours! Thats more than an entire day out of my week. 1 out of 7 days, me looking at this glowing screen of nonsense. My assumptions were accurate and scary. My phone was an unwanted, constant thief of attention.
Like I mentioned, no one likes to find out stuff like this. When you start a diet, it’s hard to step on that scale. But you must. You NEED that number. It’s important. It’s a starting point. And it’s a number you could immediately improve on. Well, that’s how I looked at my screentime number. Scary? Yes. Depressing? Certainly. Improvable? Unsure at the moment.
Looking at your most used apps is the next biggest aspect of screen time. Really, there was no surprise there. Tweetbot and Reddit owned this space. Both social networks, both adding exactly zero value to me. Other high seeders including Messages, YouTube and Safari.
If I’m being honest I have to admit the simple truth; it was really hard in the beginning. My first thought was to limit certain apps. ‘Screentime’ has this useful feature to set app time limits. So I figured i’ll take those high tier apps and set some 20 min limits. Unfortunately this proved extremely hard and not practical in the least bit. My time did dip though, about a half hour a day. But my endgame, ultimate goal was to range in around 60 minutes per day. I was no where close.
I struggled for weeks.
Honestly, the goal seemed almost unobtainable. Then I had an epiphany. A click moment of sorts.
PHONE AS A TOOL
I was listening to “The Minimalists” podcast and they mentioned the idea of commissioning your belongings for exact uses in your specific life. This keeps items useful and necessary. I thought about my phone. What do I NEED it for? Well, I need to stay connected with people. Most importantly, my family.
So I started looking at my phone as a tool. A specific tool for specific tasks. Forget about what it can do. What do I need it to do. Just because you have something that can do a lot doesn’t mean you need it to do a lot.
Trust me, I’m all for being productive, but Reddit, Twitter, Youtube, Safari and Messages are hardly productive.
Also, I reorganized my phone’s layout. I put only the most needed apps on my front home screen. On the second page I grouped everything into folders. I deleted about half my apps…..apps I never used.
After my reorganization, I conducted a week long trial run.
My time again declined. After about a week I was down to 1 hour and 45 min (give or take) per day. Looking from day one at 3 hours 30 min plus, cutting my time in half was certainly an achievement. But my goal was and is the 60 min range. If anything else could be done, I wanted to try.
Here’s a shocker that really isn’t a shocker: I felt good. Believe it or not; I was listening to people more, I wasn’t always wondering what was happening on my phone in my pocket, I didn’t feel the need to check anything. I felt completely in the moment all the time. Peoples words started to carry weight. People started to matter more, and the priorities of my phone slowly waded away. Truly, this was a refreshing feeling.
DO NOT DISTURB
There is one more feature Screentime offers: Notifications. Screentime lets you look at how many notifications per day, per hour you receive, who they are from and what apps are triggering the most. I was shocked at some of these numbers. According to Screentime, I was averaging around 20 notifications an hour. Mostly from Messages, Sports apps, News apps and Mail.
This made me think deeply about the philosophy of my interaction relationship with my phone. Am I a slave to this device? Am I at the beck and call of every single little beep and vibration this phone makes. My ego wanted to say no. My brain told me yes, of course you are.
And thats when my final click moment occurred.
‘Do Not Disturb’ is a feature Apple added a few years ago. Basically DND turns your phone to silent. Your device won’t vibrate, beep or do anything. There is no way to even know you have an alert until you pick up your phone and check. To me, this flipped the script. Now, my phone is working for me. I tried my phone on DND for a 48 hour period. My time reports were drastically lower.
I was averaging around 70 min per day.
I could totally see why. How many times do you get a notification, finish whatever and then venture off into some other app and before you know it 15 minutes go by. Happened to me all the time, multiple times a day. “Do Not Disturb” vanished that threat for me. I only pick up the phone when I want. That is a remarkable feat! Using your phone solely as a tool.
Also, in these past few months of using the phone less, I’ve noticed I’ve gone back to doing things I truly love doing. Whether that be watching more films or writing more consistently. It’s honestly like I’ve gained a part of me back that was gone for a while. I can’t quite figure out why yet. Maybe it’s knowing I’m not dependent or have an always attached feeling to my phone, I don’t know. It’s a great feeling, though.
The combination of all these tools has helped me tremendously. And I have to give credit where credits due, Apple is the only reason this was possible. I wish they would make these features a little more findable for normal users and a little more user friendly. But, I was in dire need and am so thankful I took the time to learn and understand all these features Apple included with ‘Screentime.’
WHY?
You may ask yourself, what’s the big deal? Why take such drastic measures?
I can’t speak for anyone but me. But, allow me to explain where my head is at:
Why do we sit in chairs the way we do? I know thats an odd question. But honestly, think about it. If you’re sitting down right now, why are you sitting that way?
The answer is shockingly simple. You’re sitting that way because your chair is shaped that way. The older I get I’ve chosen to try and implement a few guidelines in my life:
- I want to understand, to the best of my knowledge, why I do what I do.
- I want to be kinder and more open with people and live in the moment better.
- And lastly and most importantly, I want to rule my actions and not have devices, people or situations dictate how I act.
I don’t mind sitting in a chair if its the way I want to sit. But I don’t want to be oblivious to why I’m sitting a certain way. I don’t want possessions and situations dictating how I’m acting towards others, ever. The simple truth is my Phone was totally effecting how I treated people. It was essentially pushing people lower and lower on the priority list.
My phone was an issue and will always be a threat. I understand that now. It crept it’s way to that status with me being passive about it’s usage and place in my personal life. But, I wanted to be accountable. I wanted to try and take control.
I want to live an intentional life and be mentally present for any and everything loved ones bring to my attention.
My phone does still have a use. Very vital uses that promote personal productivity. My Calendar, Reminders, To do’s, Maps and Phone calls are now my phone’s primary functions. All of these are very important to keep me organized. I don’t just pick up my phone and ‘play’ around on it. I spend very limited time, doing very specific things on my phone now.
So Yes, I still have an iPhone X. It’s still with me all the time, in my pocket when I’m not home. But here are some of its upgraded features after Project Screentime: it’s more quiet, less obtrusive, has a simpler more minimal lay out, and extremely effective at what I need it to do.
It’s a well oiled machine tailored specifically for Danny’s life and needs.
Or I guess you could look at it this way, now its a tool I control and not the other way around.
*ddileo 