Bad Habit or Serious Problem?

A big question I’ve been riffing on is…

When does screen time shift from being a “bad habit” to an actual problem?

Although there’s some nuance to this, I knew there had to be a general framework to help make sense of this.

I ultimately landed on these two guiding questions:

1) Are you achieving everything that you want to do in the day?

Nearly every person I’ve spoken to has what I like to call ‘The Someday Goal’.

There’s always at least one thing that they ‘wish they could do if they had more time.’—maybe it’s picking up an instrument, tackling a fitness goal, or deepening a personal hobby.

Ironically, most of these goals would see major progress with just one hour of deep daily work and many of these same people have daily screen times ranging from 2-4+ hours .

See what I’m getting at?

2) Are you leaving your ‘tech time’ feeling better than when you started it?

There's a running joke that after spending all day working on our medium-sized screens, we unwind (and ‘reward’ ourselves) by switching to our small screens (phones) and our big screens (TVs).

It’s dystopian af and a little sad, but it’s true.

A lot of people use social media, Netflix, their phones etc as a form of relaxation. And tbh, I see no problem with that.

As long as you meet these two criteria:

a) You have accomplished everything that you’ve set out to accomplish during your day (aka you’ve hit all of your Rocks and Pebbles).

b) You actually feel relaxed when you put your phone down or close your laptop. This is often where the problem lies — most of us feel worse after prolonged tech use (especially Gen Z).

If you do, then great. Keep doing you.

If you’re hitting both, great. Keep doing you.

If not, consider what this pattern really means. You’re engaging in something daily that leaves you feeling worse, yet you keep coming back to it. Sounds like a problem to me.

Why? Maybe there’s a reason, maybe not.

The answer doesn’t have to mean cutting it out entirely but could simply be auditing your screen time and content diet to include less of what is causing you stress and unrest.

And remember: if you need help working through this, I’m always happy to chat.

Resources

Kanso Digital Wellness Coaching: If you’re looking for 1:1 personalized digital wellness detox plans & daily accountability coaching, sign up here and use the code FIRST50 for 50% off your plan. (expires at the end of month)

Kanso Community: A Slack community and weekly calls for those dedicated to cutting digital distractions and reclaiming their time for what truly matters.

If you’re not ready for coaching, but still looking for accountability, support, and digital wellness education, this is for you. Join the community here.

Digital Detox Tools: A free directory of 75+ digital wellness products, software, and services. Access it here.

That’s all for this week. Stop scrolling and go do something great!

Randy