Let's Talk Screen Generation...

So, I'd literally just finished my blog entitled 'Sugar vs Cocaine' (HERE) then sat down, put on the telly and discovered a Channel 4 programme, entitled 'Swiped: The school that banned smartphones', with the inspirational Dr Chatterjee. Which sent me down a whole new research rabbit hole!

And you know the first thing which came up when I googled 'mobile phones and health'? An article mentioning similar negative health impact of both mobile phones and cocaine?!

Screen time is a difficult one. I was lucky enough to grow up in an era where mobile phones were not a thing. In fact, home internet was barely a thing, it was that dial up broadband which was so slow we hardly used it. On our giant desktop computer. I got my first mobile phone at the age of 17, when I was learning to drive in a car so old that a phone was required due to the high chance of it breaking down. It was one of those Nokia brick phones with the little antennae. I'm not even sure I ever used it. If we went out for meals we had conversations with the people we were out with.

In fact, if we stayed in for food we had conversations with the people we were in with! Tv was only for an hour ish on a Friday night (watching Friends with my sister, sat on my parent's bed), for a couple of hours Saturday evening (Gladiators, Noel's House Party and Jim's Generation Game with Mr Blobby). Then occasionally for around an hour on a Sunday evening IF we were at my grans in Wales. There were only 4 channels and Sunday the only options were really Songs of Praise or One Man and His Dog. Oh to go back to that level of screen time.

Now, there is no escape. I LOVE my work, BUT it's very tied to my phone and laptop, so many hours on screens a day. Then you go out and have to almost argue with waiters that you want to order with a human and not sit on your phone and go through an app. Your concert tickets are on your phone, your train tickets, your plane tickets....even on holiday I was told if I wanted to make a dinner reservation I was to go through an app on my phone..

A science exhibition I went to showed how brain structure is changing with the growing screen generation. Healthy issues linked to screen time include obesity, anxiety, headaches, migraines, eyesight issues (a growing concern in younger children), chronic neck and back problems, even depression. I have started to feel recently that it's almost an addition for me, I'll find myself picking my phone up repeatedly for no apparent reason!

So, then I got excited. I remembered I had an old phone. I'm going to buy a sim, and have that as my 'emergency calls' only phone, so I can have little blocks of time, daytime outings or evenings out phone free. Maybe even go to bed without my phone.... Don't hold me to this, but I certainly want to explore!

Could you commit to your phone being away when with people, to focus on real, quality time with your friends and family? And maybe times by yourself when you can just switch off, completely screen free? What would you do instead?

Let's go back to our youth. Real people, real focus, real down time. See where it takes us...

Ellie

Ultimate Health By Ellie