Screen time

My sister and her husband are both nurses whose careers have focused on infants and children. As such, I've heard a lot about the "screen time" recommendations for children and teens and how they as nurses and parents implement this in their households. Of course, I would have had to have lived under a rock for the last 10 years to not know anything about this public discussion and health concern so it's not like my conversations with them about this are total news to me.

I don't think any of YOU have been living under rocks, but just in order to make my point, let me be a bit specific about this. Many respected health organizations have made recommendations about limiting screen time for children and for teens. The Mayo Clinic outlines that more than 1-2 hours a day of screen time is associated with obesity, unhealthy sleep patterns, behavioral problems, lower academic performance, and desensitization to violence. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following: limiting children's entertainment screen time to 1-2 hours, remove televisions from children's bedrooms, eliminate television and screen based entertainment for children under 2 years old, and monitor shows and games your children are exposed and try to aim them towards educational choices among others.

Here's the question I have - what are the recommendations for adults? A cursory search turns up a plethora of results when it comes to children and screen time, but a more lengthy search for adult implications turns up mostly research that obesity is linked to screen time in adults (duh), or thoughts on how to educate adults on the affects of screen time on children.

I'm sure there are recommendations somewhere about adults limiting screen time, but they are not nearly so "loud" on Google, nor are they as deeply researched. And I bet I know why.

How can we tell the workforce to do what would amount to LESS work? And what would the public think if we told them that after their long work days and commutes and putting dinner on the table they shouldn't unwind from their day with a good dose of Modern Family or How I met your mother? Frankly, although I don't have a TV in the bedroom, if someone told me to move my TV I would probably ignore them.

In my sister's house, she tries not to make a big deal of tracking screen time. She once told me that she doesn't want her kids to feel like its an edict they have to rebel against. She does want to set up good expectations and keep them active and focused on school and other ways to spend time aside from computers, iPads, games, and TV whenever possible. She also differentiates between using a computer for recreation, and using it for school work. For her, she feels like typing something for school is the time that used to be spent writing something out at the kitchen table when we were in school doing homework - that makes some sense to me. Of course, in that equation she has to be vigilant in making sure her kids are actually focused on their homework when using a computer for that purpose! I have friends that have rules about no games, TV, or unsupervised internet on school nights, and know parents that have codes set up for the use of those devices for that reason. I get it.

Sitting in front of a TV, playing games on my phone, and creating recreation opportunities on my laptop have become a way of life for me in the last year. Because my romantic relationship was on-again-off-again for the last year, and because my work schedule restricted my ability to pursue having a life, I would end up at home, alone, at weird times. So, what did I do? Of course I watched TV, caught up on shows I had missed by getting home so late, and did things with my snazzy computer. Then I got my iPhone and fell in love - for reals. I cannot tell a lie - that thing is always nearby, and there is seemingly always a game to play, a text to send, or a quick check of the email or Facebook.

But, unlike what I assume to be the vast majority of the workforce, I did not spend my work day in front of a computer. This is not to say there weren't health liabilities to being on the road all the time - there most definitely were. But, on average, I banged out emails and a few reports a week. Out of the 50 some hours I worked on an average week, I spent about 10 of it in front of a computer. There were, of course, exceptions to that - weeks where I was working on big presentations, weeks where I was really behind on documentation and follow-up reports, weeks where instructors were busy and didn't need to see me. But for the most part, my time was spent in a car (often on a phone at the same time, yes), or actually working with people.

I realized last week how that has changed. I still want to watch Modern Family, and every other show I watched before (it's a finite list, but longer than I'm proud of). But I no longer work with people day in and day out. I job search - hours of screen time. I apply for jobs - more hours of screen time in writing letters, adjusting resumes, and submitting applications online. I'm still winning 3 Words with Friends games, and losing 4. I still Skype and Facebook. I still text (if anything, more so now that so many people are lovingly checking on me and I am keeping such a close eye on my cell minutes). I still write this blog. I still immediately reach for Google when I have a question (the most recent ones were, how elephants communicate, worship communities in Boulder, information on the Komen-Planned Parenthood scandal, approximate calories burned swimming, and learning more about the true story behind a movie) and I also am doing some part time work with my computer.

In short, I was probably getting 20-40 hours of combined screen time (iPhone, computers, TV, recreation + professional) a week before, and I've easily added 4 hours a day to that in the last month of being unemployed. I don't think I'm becoming that stereotyped unemployed blob in front of the TV, but I am on my computer allllllllll ttttthhhhhheeeeee ttttiiiiiiiiiimmmmme.

In my sister's equation, a lot of that time is time that would have been spent doing something work-like or professional. In the olden days, I would have been reading the paper, typing letter and resumes on a typewriter, and making trips to the post office to mail applications out. Nowadays, I sit online. But, just like her children, it's easy to be job hunting and subtly slide into checking Facebook. Especially because I'm in front of the computer just heaps and heaps.

So, I'm interested in the effects of this. But moreover, I'm feeling the effects of this. I am tired of my computer already, and I find myself doing the equivalent of walking into a room and then forgetting what I was there for. I open the computer, run through my job search tabs, pop onto Gmail, slide over to Facebook, and find myself on my wall, or messages, having zero memory of why I went there! Over-exposure for sure.

So, I picked a day this weekend where I shut it ll down. I listened to music, I checked my phone three times for less than 2 minutes each, and I read a book, took a nap, and contemplated the ceiling. It was nice. It was relaxing. It meant I was really on my own to be with myself. Not dealing with a task, or a task-turned-social-networking. I had a day of more mindfulness about me. I know it sounds narcissistic, but it was healthy. Or at least it felt that way. I'm back to the grind today (and yesterday, and Monday) but I remain intrigued by what increased screen time does to grown-ups and I will keep on keeping an eye on this.