Around the end of September, I conducted a routine software update on my iPhone. The update installed Apple’s new iOS 12 operating system – and with it, the new Screen Time app. I’ve felt guilty ever since. Prior to the update, I would have guessed my phone use was moderate. I usually play a few rounds of a game – either FreeCell, or my current favourite, Two Dots – while I drink my morning coffee. Throughout my day, I’ll peruse social media, usually by scrolling through my Twitter feed. If I notice a notification, I’ll open Facebook. Maybe once a day, I’ll peek at Instagram. Safari gets opened when I need to Google something – an actor’s age, or the Rotten Tomatoes score of an old movie. I’ll check text messages or email as I’m alerted to them. In an age of digital overload and media saturation, I would have considered myself especially sensitive to how much time I spend staring at a screen. In an effort to scale back, I disabled lock-screen, banner and badge notifications on most apps earlier this year. I thought I was doing well. Then, Screen Time came along. After a quick check, Screen Time tells me I’ve spent an average of three hours and 55 minutes per day on my phone this week. In total, I spent 27 hours and 27 minutes staring at my screen in the last seven days. To state the obvious, that’s more than one full day. A detailed breakdown of how I’m spending time on my phone is even more disheartening. Those “few” rounds of FreeCell and Two Dots, in fact, occupied almost nine hours of my week. Those “perusals” of social media? Just less than seven hours. It’s frankly embarrassing. When I get my weekly Screen Time report – arriving without fail every Sunday for the past month – I’m left wondering how I could have used my time better. The list is long – I could have exercised, read, wrote, conversed, learned. I could have taken that full day of phone time and put it toward something productive or edifying. As the band Unknown Mortal Orchestra sang in 2015, “I can’t keep checking my phone.” Time is valuable – it is finite – and I find myself confronted with the fact that I don’t use it very well. Despite my embarrassment, I’m ultimately thankful for the new, weekly accusation. It is incredibly revealing. It’s causing me to become more self-aware about how I spend my time. That self-awareness, I believe, is the first step towards an appropriate relationship with my phone.
