The Hours We Don’t Notice

Every Sunday, I get that notification telling me my screen time. Before this day, I don’t expect to be surprised. After all, I only use my phone for school, to talk to friends, to listen to music, and, honestly, to relax, especially after a long day. But when I see that number at the end of each week, I hesitate and I wonder: when and where did all of those hours go?

I don’t endlessly scroll all day, and I don’t ignore my responsibilities or the people around me. Then, I remember some time between watching “just one more video,” checking my text messages, and clicking on apps from muscle memory, several minutes, to then hours are silently taken away. I talk about this with my friends and I realized that I am not at all alone.

This new, revolutionized generation has grown up online, surrounded by modern technology and innovations. We now learn with screens, communicate and laugh with screens, and build lives with a screen. I’ve come to an understanding that technology is woven into all of our lifestyles; we live online. However, because all generations are universally so deeply connected with technology, it can become easy to stop questioning whether our use of technology is productive or wasteful.

Those high numbers on your screen time itself aren’t inherently harmful because many hours could be spent doing homework or calling a friend, but they aren’t the same as the many hours that could also be spent doomscrolling. The educational, productive hours drawing/creating art, learning a skill, or researching an interesting topic can be incredibly meaningful ways to use technology that can be applied to the real world. The issue isn’t always that quantity of time that we spend online, but rather it’s how much of that time is dedicated to good use.

I’ve started to think to myself and ask myself different questions. Am I energized or drained and lazy after being online? Am I reaching for my phone because I need something, or because I’m bored? Am I creating memories, or am I just trying to pass the time? These aren’t always easy questions, and I don’t have straightforward answers, but digital wellness is not about being perfect and strict online; it’s about being aware. Maybe the most significant danger of screen time isn’t the hours we face, it’s the hours we don’t notice.