Between texting, talking with friends, connecting on social media, or playing games, we all spend a lot of time plugged in. Take a quick account of how many hours a day you spend on recreational screen time.* A healthy amount is 2 hours or less. That’s on top of your schoolwork, of course. So, how do we cut down?
Here are 5 tips to help cut back on screen time:
- Remove screens from your bedroom. If you have a computer or TV in your room, you’re likely to use about 1.5 hours more screen time a day. Screens in your room also keep you from interacting with the rest of the family.
- Turn off screens when eating meals and snacks and before bedtime. Using your phone at mealtime takes away from family time, and distracts you from fullness cues. So leave your phone alone and enjoy your meals with the fam.
- Keep screens off for 1 hour before bedtime and store all screens away from your sleeping area. It will help improve your sleep, and you’ll feel more rested during the day. Good quality and quantity of sleep also helps to control appetite and prevents overeating.
- Get out. Do more. There’s a whole world of fun stuff out there that doesn’t involve your phone or a computer. Plan activities that take you outdoors; plan a picnic in the park; take a hike with a friend; go for a bike ride with your family. These things are fun, and don’t involve screens.
- Press pause. As tough as it might be to put your devices away, try to turn them off completely.Set a reminder on your phone to turn off your screens. Even just while your studying. Take breaks during the day from you phone. Find other ways to have fun — there are so many.
Screen-free days and turning off your devices when they aren’t in use are good ways to protect the environment by saving energy, too. Any electronic gizmo that has a clock, digital timer, remote control or standby mode is sucking energy when it’s not being used (it’s called ‘phantom electricity’ — and it’s scary how much of it there is).
Recreational screen time – use screens for entertainment rather than for school or other educational activities.
