When I was in ninth grade, I had a tiny rash on the corner of my left eye that lasted a few days. My mother got worried and took me to see a renowned eye doctor in the town. Being the youngest child and only girl in the family, I had more doctor visits than everyone else in the family combined. I think my mother was fiercely protective of me because she had lost a child who was immediately above me in infancy. Since I came next, she showered all her concern on me. The result of the eye doctor visit, other than getting rid of the minor condition, was to walk back with a pair of sleek black framed glasses that were just hitting the trend then and have remained since.
On examining my eyes for vision, the doctor found that I had a small degree of myopia, which is common at that age, because of course work and studies. It resulted in a new awakening in my life though. The altar at our home had images and idols of several Hindu gods and goddesses. Among them was a shiny picture of Jagannath in a foil print in golden. When I was little I could see that the picture has small red and green dots on it in the background. As time passed, unbeknown to me, they had faded into oblivion because of my nearsightedness. The day I returned from the doctor’s office with my glasses, they reappeared. The world seemed to me like it had returned to its old normal – like I was missing so much while not even realizing things were gone.
A few weeks back I had the same feeling. My mind went back to the same day I got my glasses the first time. Déjà vu! I had realized I was using my ‘smart’ phone a lot more than I wished I did. I felt like while it kept getting smarter by answering all my questions and catering to a lot of requests, it was making me un-smart on many levels. It was making me lose my connection with myself. So I took action.
I figured out that on the Settings menu if you look at the Battery tab it shows your usage of each app in the last 24 hours as well as last 7 days. I looked. I was appalled. To say the least.
It seemed like I could conquer the world hiking, writing, learning a new language or helping others during the time I was spending on my phone in a week. Topping the list was of course, WhatsApp and Facebook. I realized I was watching too many videos among other things – funny videos, inspirational videos, some sad ones – all great ones but they were eating into my time and life.
I resolved to cut down my phone screen time drastically and to further monitor I downloaded a free app that tracks your phone usage called Moments. It revealed yet another picture. Most of the time I spent on a day was broken into a one or two minute spell. Since I have very busy weekdays, I don’t really get to sit with my phone for all the time I was using it. But I kept fidgeting with my phone through the day while walking to the restroom, walking to the café, cooking dinner, etc. and the minutes sure did add up, and worse, the number of times I was picking up my phone was almost as high as the minutes because every time I browsed, I did only for a minute or two.
Action – I resolved to not use my phone for more than forty-five to sixty minutes in a day and monitor the number of times I was picking up my phone. Calls are not monitored for screen time usage, if the screen is blacked out during them – so I can still make the necessary calls without counting the time. Also sometimes I need to use the maps feature, which I don’t count towards my usage minutes. Everyone who knows me knows that I get confused between right and left, irrespective or which language the directions are explained in, it’s right then that the visuals in the apps come in very handy (pun intended).
Since then I have upgraded to a paid version of Moments (onetime payment of $3.50). It gives me a loud alarm and an angry smiley if I exceed my usage. The smileys keep getting angrier the longer I exceed my set time.
End result – The world seems like a different place or rather like the old world that I knew. I am far less distracted and restless and starting to see the beauty of the dots in the background again. Even at my worst I was probably a median user compared to all users, but still putting down my phone has helped me reclaim my own life from it and there’s no giving my life back to it again.
