The Great Paradox of the 21st Century.

In an age which is becoming ever more connected, it would seem that people have never been more disconnected from one another. In an age where likes and views are everything, it would appear to be the case that the number of people who actually care about the lives of others is decreasing with alarming rapidity.

A trend which I find to be rather disturbing is the amount of time people spend with their faces glued to a screen. Statistically, your average 4–5 year old in Australia will spend more than 2 hours per weekday and more than 3 hours per weekend day.

These numbers increase by around an hour for children between the ages of 12 and 13.
The below image gives an overview of the average amount of time adults spend looking at screens, whether it be television, mobile phones or computers.

When it comes to social media and the internet in general, teenagers appear to be the biggest consumers on both counts. On average, around 18 hours each week is spent browsing the internet, and social media in particular. However, it would seem that these numbers have increased since this survey was last conducted.

A number of studies have been released, demonstrating an inverse relation between the amount of hours spent on the internet and social media, and how happy the subjects were. In addition to this, it has also been shown that the psychological well being of the subjects was greater when they spent less time performing on screen activities.

I would posit that the reason for this lies in the fact that as people are becoming more and more connected to their screens, they find it harder and harder to make real, warm connections with others that can only be described as authentic human relationships. These relationships are necessary for mental well being, accounting for, in my opinion, a majority of the plethora of mental conditions including depression and suicidal tendencies.

This brings us back to the title of the article. The great paradox of the 21st century is that the more people appear to have a multitude of connections online, the less they are able to connect with people offline. The more connected we seem, the less connected we really are.

The above figures and facts will doubtless seem daunting and even disheartening to some. So many people (myself included) will no doubt be wondering if there are ways to avoid falling into the trap of spending inordinate amounts of time on social media and the internet.

Fortunately, this is a subject on which there is no lack of helpful material. An article I read recently, described a mindset which should prove to be very helpful when approaching the topic of phone use. The trick was to treat your phone as a toothbrush, using it only when necessary. Granted, it’s a great tool, but like your toothbrush, it’s not something you need to be using every minute of the day.

One suggestion I would make, is to disable notifications for non-essential things, such as likes, comments and you-tube videos. This way, when you want to just sit down and relax without your phone, you aren’t constantly reminded of the world of social media.

A second tip which I think is useful is to make use of a timer which can tell you how much time you have spent on social media on that particular day. For example, the Facebook app has an in built timer or alarm which is set off whenever you reach a certain amount of time that you set.

From my experience, it seems that many people, myself included, browse social media due to boredom. So a third and final tip could be to find some other useful activity which you enjoy. This could mean taking up bush-walking, drawing, learning to play an instrument, or anything else from a list of literally thousands of activities.

In the end, the power to change social media and unhealthy screen-time habits, ultimately lies in your hands. The benefits of more offline time and the risks of the inverse have been clearly demonstrated. It’s up to you to choose an activity which leads to poorer mental health and an inability to socialise easily with others outside of the online environment. I, for one, know which option I’m going to choose.

Sources and further reading:

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