The most common questions:

How do I end my addiction to the phone?

In our work related to empowering users to reclaim control over their digital habits, we hear this question frequently. Other related questions are, “How can I lower my screentime?” or “What can I do to stop binge-watching?” Amongst parents, we hear concerns such as, “How can I get my child to spend less time on social media (TikTok, Instagram, Snap, etc.) or video games (Roblox, Minecraft, etc.)?”

The tone of these questions ranges from curiosity to exasperation. It’s hard and confusing.

The Struggle Is Real:

We’re living through an unprecedented period where we have access to immensely powerful technical capabilities packaged so simply, they can be used by 2-year-olds. Yet, no one has taught us how to thrive alongside this powerhouse.

Only now are we starting to see peer-reviewed data on the cracks in our overall wellness as a result.

For instance, children under the age of 14 spend twice as much time with their devices as they do in conversations with their families. [1]

So, is this a Gen-Z/Millennial problem only? Hardly. After all, they’ve had years of poor modeling by adults around them who thought it was OK to check emails over dinner tables. The same adults are now facing burnout at unprecedented rates as they struggle to separate life from work. Only 27% of knowledge workers say they have a healthy relationship with work. [2] That’s unsurprising given 2 out of 3 people check email within a few minutes of waking up![3]

Schools and other educational institutions have also struggled to introduce meaningful digital literacy programs. Legislators are now starting to create rules that make devices into contraband at school.[4] Its brute force applied to a complex problem where everyone is trying to gain control of a runaway train – students, staff, parents, and the administration.

Smoking or Seatbelts?

In discussions related to digital wellness, people often point to smoking cessation as a parallel for what needs to occur to reclaim control over screentime. Afterall, that feels like an unqualified success story against an addictive agent – tobacco. And yet, others will be quick to point out that unlike tobacco, technology use is immensely beneficial. So, they argue that the better analogy might be that of using seatbelts in cars. In other words, to find a way that harnesses the massive power of innovative technology in a safe way.

Regardless of which of these analogies you align with – what’s important (and common) is to remember how slow we’ve been as a society at adopting these changes.

For instance, while the data connecting smoking to lung cancer was available back in the 1960s, insurance companies didn’t start to ratchet up the pressure via added premiums until the 1990s. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that indoor smoking at restaurants and bars was banned in most states across the United States of America. Seatbelts had a similar 3-decade gestation period. From being introduced back in the 1950s, the first laws didn’t get written until the 1980s!

Symptom or Root Cause?

And what do we do until legislation catches up? We’ve seen people use a variety of techniques to wrangle control over their devices! From silencing notifications, greyscaling devices, keeping phones out of bedrooms, or flat-out restricting hours of use (digital sabbaths) – almost all techniques fail after a short period of success. And so, the struggle continues.

At Scroll By Choice, we see unmanaged, excessive screentime as a symptom. It’s a reaction toward the underlying shifts in how we’ve evolved our work, school, and home lives. In the context of digital wellness and being able to thrive alongside technology, we also see screentime as being a narrow lens.

That’s because as technology evolves to become increasingly intelligent and immersive – it’s possible that perhaps screens become obsolete in favor of voice, gesture, and other forms of engagement.

Therefore, instead of being fixated on screentime hours, our efforts are directed at helping people learn capabilities that enhance their sense of agency. Why?

Because through our work – what we find most commonly is that while people are unhappy with their screentime, what irks them even more is their lack of control over it.

It’s so common to find clients talking about “spending 45 minutes on my phone when I only wanted to check the time.”

Think of the sense of agency as having control. Not just over your actions, but also over the result that comes from the action. High sense of agency puts you in the driver’s seat. There’s more to this discussion that teeters on concepts of free will, but for this discussion – control is probably a sufficiently good way to understand it.

Unfortunately, through intentional design (e.g., infinite scrolling on Instagram or recommendations on YouTube[5], etc.) or through unanticipated macro trends (e.g., asynchronous communications), people find themselves losing control. This means, they feel compelled to do things that they know intellectually and intuitively aren’t good for them. Or in some instances, they don’t know when to stop too much of a good thing.

The good news is that once you can see how your sense of agency has been eroded either intentionally or unintentionally – you can leverage exercises to rebuild it. We call this our ChoiceX framework – which is grounded in Smiles, Skills, and Surprise. These three innately human traits are powerful levers that allow you to reclaim that driver’s seat.

Only once you are back in control – that it’s meaningful to talk about actions like ‘setting screentime limits’ or ‘turning off notifications’.

Time To Act:

Keeping with the analogy of how tobacco was restrained, in May 2023, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory against the use of Social Media for teens.[6] We cannot wait 40 years for meaningful action because in that time we will have lost generations of productivity, creativity, and health. Also, unlike the tobacco industry, the technology industry evolves rapidly and the goal posts are ever-shifting!

Employers need to step up in order to help their workers reclaim control over their fragmented attention and focus time. Beyond being an investment in their employee productivity, doing so saves millions of dollars that are otherwise being lost to distractions (Nearly 40% of employees check social media during conference calls) and higher insurance premiums due to burnout.

For individuals and parents who do not have their support from their employers, you also have options to reclaim your digital wellness. From expanding your knowledge base using resources such as the Center for Humane Technology or the Digital Wellness Lab to engaging in workshops through Scroll By Choice – you have the power reclaim control over screentime.

Scroll By Choice is helping employers and individuals take sustainable steps to regain control over their digital habits. Using a proprietary Choice Score we go beyond screen time to understand what exhausts vs energizes. Then, through a series of practical strategies grounded in innate human attributes — users learn how to engage with technology in a way that boosts their digital wellbeing. Additional information is available at learnmore@scrollbychoice.com

[1] Children spend twice as long on smartphones as talking to parents (telegraph.co.uk)

[2] First HP Work Relationship Index Shows Majority of People Worldwide Have an Unhealthy Relationship with Work

[3] Study Finds 61% Of People Check Their Phone 5 Minutes After Waking Up | Ubergizmo

[4] Legislators are now starting to create rules that make devices into contraband at school

[5] How the Design of YouTube Influences User Sense of Agency - YouTube

[6] Surgeon General Issues New Advisory About Effects Social Media Use Has on Youth Mental Health | HHS.gov