Introduction
Due to the rapid development of information technology, the usage of digital devices has become more common in our daily lives, causing excessive eye use when we constantly stare at screens. This then leads to health issues including eye strain, eye dryness, and headaches. For me, the largest impact electronics have on me is that it deepens myopia.
It is impossible for me to not use any electronic devices, but reducing their usage could be a possible method to decrease the negative effect they have on my eyes. After checking the screen time for my phone, I found out that the largest proportion of the time was spent on social media apps. During the previous week, I have spent 25 hours and 39 minutes on social media apps, which means during that week I have spent about a day browsing through these apps. I feel that it is quite unnecessary to waste my time on them, and it wouldn’t be so hard to reduce my screen time on social media.
According to PharmEasy, adults should not spend more than 2 hours on social media or watching movies/series. The average daily screen time on social media is currently 3.7 hours, a goal of reducing it to 3 hours per day feels more achievable to me. During this week, I will record my daily screen time and the time distribution to different social media apps. Also, the amount of time that I spent outside would be recorded to analyze its relation to screen time, as I feel that my cell sometimes drains faster when I go out.
Statistics Collected
The table below displays the basic statistics that I have collected over the week:
| Day of Week |
Number of Pickups |
Screen Time (mins) |
Goal Accomplished |
Time Spent Out (mins) |
| Tuesday |
239 |
193 |
No |
650 |
| Wednesday |
173 |
140 |
Yes |
490 |
| Thursday |
98 |
151 |
Yes |
0 |
| Friday |
324 |
308 |
No |
760 |
| Saturday |
128 |
193 |
No |
0 |
| Sunday |
137 |
162 |
Yes |
0 |
| Monday |
120 |
191 |
No |
230 |
WeChat, Douban, Weibo, Little Red Book, and Instagram are the social media apps I use, this bar chart shows how my screen time is distributed:
It was expected that I would spend most of my screen time on WeChat, as it kind of replaces the iMessage app and is kind of a tool and leisure combined app. For the rest of the apps, I am the most addicted to Douban. Browsing through Douban before I go to bed has become part of my daily routine, it was difficult to decrease my time on it. However, for the other three apps, I have almost not used them during some of the days.
To compare and find out the relationship between my screen time and the amount of time I spend out of home, I made this scatter graph displayed below:
Each point plotted represents a day in each week and its x and y coordinates determine the screen time and the time spent out respectively. The diagonal line at the center is the line of best fit derived from all seven points. The closer the points are to the line of best fit, the stronger the two events correlate, and the closer the coefficient of determination (R-squared) is to 1, the better the fit. An R-squared value of 0.3488 indicates a moderate positive linear relationship. This graph proves that the events, of spending time on social media apps and going out, are somehow positively correlated, meaning that the longer I stay outside, the longer time I tend to spend on social media apps.
Reflection
Compared to the previous week, the total screen time on social media apps this week has reduced by approximately 13 percent to 22 hours and 18 minutes, with an average of 3.18 hours per day. Some improvements were made, but still quite far away from the 2 hours per day. The fact that only 3 out of 7 days have accomplished the goal reflects difficulties in attempts to reduce screen time.
The habit of spending less time on social media requires a lot of willpower and needs a longer time to get used to not constantly picking up the phone. The easier methods below could be considered to reduce the negative effects screens have on my eyes:
- Better lighting
- Seating posture
- Viewing distances
- Glare on screen
