I wonder if the majority of people on here spend more than 13 hours a day. It seems crazy to me spending that much time looking at screens but when I see how much time some programming projects take I think wow, they must be looking at screens 80 hours a week to pull this work off.
I sometimes want to watch tv or play video games after work but after already staring at a screen for 9 hours, I have to read a book or do some other activity. Im not sure its good for us.
Are screens bad or are the primary ideas about screen time based on when screens solely offered content to consume without interaction?
Looking a mere 30cm in front of you for extended periods of time isn’t great either, along with a lack of excercise. Not unique to computers, but there are multiple reasons which combined can make prolonged PC or phone usage unhealthy.
– Someone who spends a lot of time in front of a computer.
That’s very fair. Not necessarily the screen itself or the mental effects, but the associated activities. I forget what I’ve had to incorporate into my habits to fight that sedentarianism. I’m still not great at avoiding it.
My solution is that my screen is 20 feet away and battery powered, and I keep the batteries on a separate floor, so every 2 hours, I have to get up and do the stairs at the very minimum. But I also tend to walk around or do my life while using the screen, since it also floats around and follows me wherever I go. And when not using a floating screen, I just visit other random worlds that tend to involve alot exercise, like people trying to murder me but I have swords, or magic, or guns… or maybe a world where the objective is dancing… but usually the murder worlds.
“Screen are bad and you’ll become blind!”
-said mom who now scrolls WeChat all the time
Screens aren’t bad and screen time isn’t bad. It’s all about dosage.
Personally, I think both are pretty bad, but yeah, spending extended periods of time in front of a computer screen isn’t very healthy. They’ve already stated in another comment about the physical aspects of it with being 30 centimeters from the screen.
But there’s also the social development aspect of it. At the end of the day, humans are social creatures, regardless if you are an introvert or extrovert. You still need some amount of socialization. Many people that are habitually on computers have converted that socialization over to some digital platform like Discord(guilty as charged), Or have moved to a text based socialization. While this may meet our needs as human beings for socialization, It disconnects us from our emotions, and hinders our ability to have direct conversation.
The consequences of tone doesn’t matter much online, which makes us more apt to respond or be blunt for discussion. The lack of video or a face also weakens the ability to be able to analyze body language, to be able to properly analyze the intent of the other parties. These attributes are crucial for communication.
Things such as going in for job interview are now digitalozed (or in some fields discarded all together). Instances such as calling someone to verify an appointment or to ask questions are being replaced with text-based communications or no communication needed portals. We are currently seeing this among the millennials and Gen Z’s, but even the Gen A’s are starting to show signs of a weaker ability to have face-to-face communication and be able to interpret body language. I’ve never liked talking on the phone in the first place, but my sister, who’s younger than me, avoids it like the plague. It’s to the point where if the thing that she’s doing doesn’t have an online portal or an ability to text, she isn’t going to do it. Because she’s not comfortable with having phone calls outside of her social circle, and she isn’t comfortable going and meeting someone to ask in person. When I’ve talked to her about it, she’s stated that she’s not different than most of her friend group, and that that’s just how it is now.
It’s scary.