Good Screens and Bad Screens
Catherine Price, a science journalist and author, shares tips on achieving screen-life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown. She emphasizes being intentional about screen use and setting boundaries to improve well-being and reduce anxiety.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
The Impact of Increased Screen Time During COVID-19
Why Screen Life Balance is Crucial During the Pandemic
Intentional Screen Time vs. Reducing Screen Time
Analogy: Screen Time as Different Food Groups
How Online Emotions Affect Real-Life Interactions
Categorizing Screen Time: Consumption, Creation, and Connection
Importance of Deliberately Taking Breaks from Screens
The Value of Off-Screen Activities for Well-being
Strategies for Reducing Ease of Access to Problematic Apps
Mindful Screen Time Management for Children
Setting Boundaries in All Areas of Life
Practical Tips for Creating Physical and Digital Boundaries
4 Key Concepts
Screen Life Balance
This concept emphasizes being intentional about how screen time makes you feel, rather than focusing solely on the quantity of hours spent. The goal is to ensure screen use is productive, connecting, or genuinely enjoyable, and to identify and reduce uses that cause anxiety or unhappiness.
Screen Time Food Groups
An analogy comparing different types of screen time to various food groups. Some screen activities are 'nutritious' (like kale, e.g., connecting with loved ones), while others are 'junk food' (e.g., endless news scrolling) that might provide temporary comfort but ultimately make you feel bad.
Three Cs of Screen Time
A framework for categorizing screen activities into Consumption (passively taking in information like news or entertainment), Creation (actively producing something), and Connection (engaging with others). This helps evaluate the quality and impact of different screen uses.
Opportunity Cost of Screen Time
The idea that every moment spent on a screen is a moment not spent on something else. Recognizing this finite nature of time and attention encourages more deliberate choices about how to allocate one's time, especially away from 'black holes' like endless social media scrolling.
6 Questions Answered
During the pandemic, increased screen time is unavoidable for work, connection, and entertainment. It's crucial to manage it to ensure that screen use is productive, makes you feel good, and connects you to others, rather than leading to anxiety or depletion from excessive news or social media spirals.
The focus should be on being intentional about screen time and paying attention to how it makes you feel. It's not about strictly reducing hours, but rather identifying which screen activities are nourishing and productive versus those that cause anxiety, sadness, or depression.
Exposing yourself to stressful or anxiety-producing content online can negatively affect your mental state. This mental state can then be transmitted to the people you are self-isolating with, impacting your real-life relationships and overall household well-being.
When stressed, the rational part of the brain (prefrontal cortex) is less active, leading to quick fixes like mindlessly checking a phone. Having a pre-written list of enjoyable non-screen activities makes it easier to choose nourishing alternatives when moments of downtime or boredom arise.
Parents should be intentional about their children's screen time, focusing on what they are getting out of it and how it makes them feel, rather than just the amount. Involve older children (over five) in conversations about screen use and off-screen alternatives to give them a sense of control.
Practical ways include deleting problematic apps (like news or social media) from your phone, turning off notifications, creating rituals to mark the start/end of work or screen time, using different devices for different purposes, and establishing a physical charging station for your phone outside the bedroom.
23 Actionable Insights
1. Evaluate Screen Time Impact
Intentionally evaluate your screen time by asking if it makes you feel productive, good, or connected to others, and prioritize those uses to boost well-being.
2. Mindful Feeling Check
Use a mental trigger to check your feelings in the moment (‘How am I feeling right now?’) and choose activities that feel nourishing, productive, or helpful over those causing anxiety or sadness.
3. Screen Time Food Groups
Categorize your screen time into ‘food groups’ (e.g., nutritious vs. junk food) to make conscious choices that nourish you, similar to how you approach eating.
4. Establish Phone Bedtime
Establish a ‘phone bedtime’ (e.g., 7:30 PM) where you shut off and put away your phone, engaging only in physical, screen-free activities like reading or yoga to significantly improve sleep.
5. Avoid Late Night News
Avoid checking the news after a certain time each night, especially before bed, to improve sleep and reduce anxiety about information you can’t act on.
6. Create Non-Screen Activity List
Create a list of enjoyable non-screen activities in advance to easily choose alternatives when the urge for mindless screen use arises, especially during stress.
7. Take Deliberate Screen Breaks
Deliberately take breaks from screens, such as going for a walk without your phone, to be present and relieve the subconscious pressure to respond and be available.
8. Dedicated Screen-Free Evenings
Dedicate an entire evening to turning off all personal screens and engaging with those you are physically with, or participate in shared screen activities like watching a movie together.
9. Set Physical Device Boundaries
Create physical distance from devices, such as a charging station outside the bedroom, to prevent instinctive use before bed and avoid negative spirals.
10. Remove Problematic Apps
Experiment with temporarily deleting specific apps (e.g., Twitter, news apps) from your phone to reduce ease of access to potentially problematic, anxiety-inducing content.
11. Conscious Content Exposure
Be conscious of the content you expose yourself to online, opting for calm content over anxiety-inducing platforms to protect your mental state and prevent transmission of stress to others.
12. Establish Life Boundaries
Establish clear boundaries in all areas of life (work, personal time, news, screens) to combat the blending of roles and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed.
13. Workday Transition Rituals
Create rituals to mark the beginning and end of your workday, providing clear transitions between work and personal life.
14. Device-Specific Usage
Establish rituals for screen interaction, such as using different devices for different purposes (e.g., desktop for news/email, phone for calls) to create clear boundaries and improve efficiency.
15. VIP Do Not Disturb
Use your phone’s ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature with a VIP contact list to allow important calls while maintaining physical boundaries from your device and avoiding constant interruptions.
16. Nurture Physical Body
Nurture your physical body with off-screen activities like taking a bath, recognizing that physical well-being is crucial beyond mental engagement.
17. Categorize Screen Time (3 Cs)
Categorize your screen time into ‘Consumption,’ ‘Creation,’ and ‘Connection’ to understand and balance your digital activities effectively.
18. Intentional Kids’ Screen Time
Be intentional about children’s screen time, questioning its usefulness, positive impact, and opportunity cost, rather than defaulting to screens.
19. Involve Kids in Screen Rules
Have conversations with children (over five) about screen use, involving them in creating off-screen activity lists and schedules to give them a sense of control and reduce tension.
20. Creative Off-Screen Kids Activities
Engage children in creative, off-screen activities like ‘worm hunts’ to provide alternatives to screen time, especially for younger kids.
21. Outcome-Based Kids’ Learning
For children’s learning, define desired outcomes or skills first, then creatively find ways (on or off-screen) to achieve them, rather than defaulting to online lectures.
22. Mindful Kids’ Screen Rules
For children’s screen time, be mindful of how rules and usage make both you and your children feel; adjust if it causes judgment or overwhelm.
23. Seek Science-Based Answers
When confused or fearful, remember that looking for answers in evidence-based science is always the best way to go.
5 Key Quotes
You need to be intentional about your screen time is what I keep coming back to.
Catherine Price
For every moment that you're spending in the black hole of Twitter, you're not spending it on something else.
Catherine Price
We're not just heads on top of bodies. You know, we actually are creatures who have physical bodies also.
Catherine Price
No one's stopping you. So just get curious about it. Experiment. See what it's like.
Catherine Price
We're just like in the state of uncertainty and anxiety with no boundaries. And when you think about it in that context, it makes sense that a lot of us are feeling pretty crazy right now.
Catherine Price
3 Protocols
Creating a List of Non-Screen Activities
Catherine Price- Take a few minutes to write down a list of non-screen activities that make you feel good.
- Keep this list accessible so that when you have downtime or feel stressed, you have alternatives ready instead of instinctively reaching for your phone.
Setting Phone Boundaries for Better Sleep
Dr. Laurie Santos- Choose a specific time each night to 'put your phone to bed' (e.g., 7:30 PM).
- Shut off your phone and place it away from your immediate reach, ideally in a different room.
- Engage only in physical, screen-free activities like reading physical books or doing yoga before bed.
Creating a VIP Contact Group for Phone Boundaries
Catherine Price- Create a group of VIP contacts (e.g., close family, essential colleagues) on your phone.
- Turn on the 'Do Not Disturb' feature for general calls/notifications.
- Configure 'Do Not Disturb' settings to allow calls from your VIP contacts to still come through, ensuring you don't miss important calls while maintaining boundaries.