Screentime VS Allthetime

Technology and gadgets became a part of our daily lives, with them, a new way to look at how we spend our time, and the possible health implications of a changed lifestyle.

The advent of television changed how we lead our lives. Instead of spending time with family and friends, we started getting home from work and going straight to the couch to watch our favourite shows. All kinds of activities were massively altered, even the sacred and usual family dinner; instead of sitting and talking, people were diverting their attention to the news. What has this brought about? In short: sedentarism. People started moving less and less, and as a consequence obesity, heart problems, among others started being claimed as one of the main problems of too much television. Not only this, but also less social contact. However, televisions are not the only screens we have today. In the developed world most of us have TVs, computers, cellphones, screens that pretend to be books, books that pretend to be screens and scores of others. We can no longer look at this issue with only one pair of lenses. Different screens mean different types of activity and different uses mean different outcomes.

A new debate has been sparked: should we then, limit our and our children's time in front of screens? The answer is: it depends. Although it's almost undiscussable that we should spend less time in front of a computer or a TV, one should not look at all activities the same way. There are ways to actually promote learning and social interaction through the use of these devices. The best example is videogames. There has been a lot of criticism about violence in videogames and the way they are shaping our youth. But one forgets to account all other sorts of things that a child can be exposed to; so, before starting to blame the easiest thing you can find, you should look at the proper data and factors that actually move humans to act.

We have now a ton of research that show that videogames and other simulations can help us with problem solving, developing strategic thinking, hand-eye coordination give us better spacial skills, among other goodies. Not only that, gaming can actually be a social activity with a great deal of interaction, assuming that the players are in the same room, talking, and sharing an external experience together.

Still, the problem with technology remains. We have addiction and escapism at the end of the spectrum and we haven't been able to deal with it. With online gaming, people are given a false sense of belonging to a community and of interaction with others. Not to mention the obvious sedentarism and the setbacks of spending too many hours doing one task (playing a game), and not the other (doing sports or learning a craft.) Mobile phones are also a double-edged knife: while generally we can accept it helped bringing us all closer together, it also created an attachment to an object to the point where we see our peers staring at a piece of plastic instead of engaging in conversation with the person right next to them.

Given all this, one should always consider the activity itself, and whether, in a certain hour of the day, you rather be playing a videogame with your friends, reading a book, going out, or just brainlessly browsing through facebook. It's time we understand the real factors behind our use of technology and start acting properly, as to figure if we're really enjoying the moment, or if the moment is just slipping through our fingers without us noticing it.