Hello, everyone.
Welcome to my blog and another wonderful edition of the Hive Learners' featured post. Unregulated screentime is really a bad habit many of us have today, especially the youths of this generation. We are so addicted to our phones and gadgets that we can spend the whole day on them. In most cases, the aftereffects of excess screen time do not take place immediately; some time it comes back to hunt us, while sometimes the aftereffects take place almost immediately.
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I attended a sermon sometime ago, and the pastor said, "The youths of this generation only think about their future when their phones die." Truth be told, what he said was not a complete lie, and though many youths picked offense, there are atoms of truth in what he said. I have seen cases where a friend wakes up without even saying his morning prayer or stepping down from the bed. At least the first thing he did was grab his phone, and that is how his day started. Many of us are guilty of that, too.
Phones and gadgets come even before food in priority ranking, and we can spend all day moving from one app to another. Too much screen time can be addictive; let's not talk about the health challenges that come with it. In 2022, when schools went on strike for about 8 months, I got so addicted to my phone during this period, moving from one app to the other and from the hive platform back to those apps. I was seeing movies daily, and for hours when I got tired of surfing the internet, my phone was only off my hands when I was sleeping, and the moment I wake up, I was back to business.
A friend in school once said that if he were a phone or a gadget, he wouldn't pray for a user like me. It was true because sometimes the temperature of my phone gets very hot and the phone starts to malfunction, but that still does not stop me from operating it. My parents always complain, but I never listened until the aftereffects came knocking. In late 2022 and early 2023, I started noticing my eyes get itchy once they come into contact with light, no matter how small the light might be. I thought it was just normal and things would get back to normal, until it got to the point where it was both itchy and teary once there was light.
That is when I realized I was in trouble. I complained to my dad, and he almost did not want to hear what I had to say because he warned me. I later visited the hospital, was given glasses, and was instructed to only be on my phone or laptop if it was important. During this period, I had little or no screentime. That is how my regulation of screen time started; now I regulate how much time I spend on my phone, and it has helped improve my eyes again, and sometimes I can operate my phone and laptop without the glasses.
I learned my lesson the hard way, and sometimes I am glad I got to learn the hard way. The pain I passed through then helped me get rid of my addiction to my phone, as well as help me adopt strategies and ways to help regulate my screentime. Below are a few methods I use:
Switch off the phone before going to bed. Once I am done for the day, I switch my phone off because leaving it on means it is the first thing I will pick up the next day.
Try to stay occupied with offline activities; this helps keep me away from my phone and gadgets. If you are busy, you tend to forget that you even have a phone.
Most of all, hang out with friends; it works every time.
Thanks for reading my post.
Mobile phones have become equally important as breathing is. When it is on charge,yes we think about many life activities but our eyes are continously on the phone charging and we wait to get it sufficient to use
Exactly, most times we take things more seriously when our phone is charging.
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I think you gave great tips. can't really go wrong with any of those three you listed. Sadly the phone is the first thing I grab because I wake up a bit past morning time so I need to see if there's any urgent messages to reply.
It is good to do a catch up every morning, see what you have missed and all.
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You're welcome. Ya that's what it is xD catching up ;3
You must have really spent a lot of time on phone for you to be experiencing such issues. Though the human eye ability to tolerate longer time on screen depends on how healthy an individual eye is which is prone to deteriorate over time. These are good recommendations, though switching of my phone wouldn't help me much because it doesn't cost me anything to switch it on back 😅
For me as long as it is off, I won't bother switching it back on untill I get certain offline activities over with.
Sorry about that. You had to learn the hard way. I hope people see this and learn from it. I don’t think I have ever taken my phone first without doing my morning prayers and watching my face . It helps too
I did learn the hard way, many people grab phone first before prayers.
This is a beautiful read especially the recommendations. Truly, youths would not think of their future unless the phones are dead and painfully, the exposure to those screens do not benefit health wise, rather cause damages
Too much screentime causes eye strain, many youths don't even want to hear what you have to say as long as it has to do with reducing screentime.
Hopefully they'll learn by revelation rather than experience
Lessons are always learnt the hard way but being glued to one's gadget's screen is almost irresistible. Nevertheless, there has to be a limit. Engaging in offline activities like hanging out with family and friends is one of the most effective way out.
We are all guilty as charged 😂, everyday we spend at least an hour glued to the screen of our phones..
Sometimes attending to our phones even comes before morning prayers which is really wrong.
Some of my friends also got eye problems because of food much time on their phones.
Those are some quality tips you have mentioned and they are not to be ignored
This is me every single day 😂 I just pray I don't experience the same thing you did one of these days, although I don't spend a toxic amount of time on my phone every day, I know when to take a break. But still, it's a lot better for everyone to control the amount of time they spend on their phones