Screen Time

We’ve all heard that social media is a “time drainer”. When thinking about this idea, I decided to track my time on different social media apps that I use. I used the built-in screen time feature on my iPhone in order to accurately track my time across different apps. I looked at the data for one whole week in order to see weekdays and a weekend. I was curious to see if my weekend time looked different than my weekday time, because I assumed that it would. I decided to look at Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram because those are the apps that I spend the most amount of time on. Pinterest is also used occasionally, but I find that I only use it when I am looking for a specific idea and not just “mindlessly scrolling”. When I am looking for a specific idea (a craft idea usually), I use it for long periods of time, but those times are few and far between. 

When looking at the data that I collected, the first thing that I noticed was that I was correct in my assumption that my time on these apps increased greatly over the weekend. This made sense to me because I have a lot more free time on the weekends and have more time to spend looking at social media. I was also correct that Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook (respectively) were my top 3 social media platforms based on the amount of time I have spent on them. In my top screen time was also the messaging app, but I was not considering that for this analysis because it is just texting on my phone. One of the things that I added to my phone settings a while ago is a TikTok screen time limit. I set that limit at 30 minutes per day because I found that when I first installed the app I would completely get sucked in and not realize how much time I have actually spent on it. I find that it is a good check in for myself but that I do not always follow that screen time limit. I often hit “remind me in 15 more minutes” because I am not ready to stop scrolling, but I want to be conscious of my time. Another thing that I noticed is that YouTube is not at all in my top apps. Before TikTok, I spent more time on YouTube, but I now find myself more often searching for videos on TikTok before YouTube (depending on the video). It was also interesting to see that I spend more time on Instagram during the week than TikTok during the week. I only follow my friends and few celebrities on Instagram, but on TikTok I do not follow anyone in particular. Instead, I just watch the “for you” videos. Because of this, I use Instagram (and Facebook) more to keep up with the people that I know personally and less for mindless entertainment. I often find myself scrolling through Instagram or Facebook at night after work, but less often spend that time during the week on TikTok. 

Image Source: Personal Photo (Screenshot from iPhone Screen Time)

Image Source: Personal Photo (Screenshot from iPhone Screen Time)

I think that it is important to be aware of how much time is actually spent on social media. While there are so many benefits and I personally love how it can keep you connected to people who are no longer in your day-to-day life, I also recognize how much time can be spent (and wasted) glued to a device and not interacting in person with people. I think that screen time apps are important for everyone to check regularly to hold themselves accountable, while recognizing that some seasons of life will be spend on a device more than others. I appreciate that screen time limits are built into so many devices so that parents can hold their kids accountable to that as well. This practice will also help teach the importance of balance with devices. The idea of screen time limits and a balance with technology should also be taught in schools and can easily integrate with a unit on digital citizenship.

Image Source: Child's Play Therapy Center