A Pandemic Revelation
Written by Hannah Nyren, Contributing Writer, and Illustrated by Katie Herrick, Culture Editor
During the second week of online classes, one of my TAs asked the class how long people we were spending on our computers daily. The average answer was between 6-7 hours per day. Six to seven hours initially took me aback.
Six to seven hours sounded to me like way too long to spend staring at a screen completing online work, but when I really thought about it, I realized I am much closer to that number then I originally thought.
To make matters worse, a study published in Time Magazine found that United States adults who spend six hours or more a day watching TV or using computers had a higher risk for depression (Heid, 2019). My classmates who said they spent six to seven hours did not even include the time they spent staring at TVs, phones or any other electronics. I can only imagine the number once the surplus of hours spent on Netflix, online shopping or scrolling through a number of mobile apps is added.
The excuse many of us have been using to justify spending this extreme amount of time on our screens is that we are under orders to stay home. Safer At Home has been our excuse for many things—eating unhealthily, not exercising, staying in pajamas all day—but especially so for staring at our screens all day.
Some people spend so much time online because they think there is nothing better to do with the time, but do so without thinking of the consequences it may have for the future. Spending this much time staring at our screens gets us in a bad habit that we may not know how to break when this bad dream called COVID-19 slows down.
So, it may seem like a good distraction to immerse yourself in a screen as the world seems to be going crazy right now, but there are other things to do besides binging Netflix or watching hours upon hours of Youtube.
Our generation has prioritized the world on their screens over the world around them for years; in fact. Safer At Home has helped me realize what I have been taking for granted about everyday life. Pure physical social interaction has become such a valued aspect of life that was taken for granted before.
I’ve heard many times from older people in my life that I need to get off my phone or off my computer and look up once in a while, but it took a pandemic for me to listen. Simple things in life have been pushed to the side because of technology. In a crazy time like this, it’s good to go back to basics.
Bake! Take a walk! Do a puzzle! Draw a picture! Close all your tabs for a day and take a breath. We turn to screens out of boredom and simplicity, but when the global pandemic ends we’ll all be changed—how you choose to spend Safer At Home determines whether it will be for better or for worse.
Sources:
Heid, M. (2019, May 29). What’s the Ideal Amount of Screen Time? Time Magazine.