When I was a kid, screens were something we used to keep the flies out.
A clever person even took a tiny square of screen material, attached it to a handle and called it a flyswatter. My favorite song lyric, as I’ve noted before, is: “Honey put down that flyswatter, and pour me some ice water.”
I would like to insert here that “honey” is a gender-neutral word and can be applied to both men and women.
But today’s topic is another kind of screen: the ones built into smartphones, computers and TVs.
I’m among the millions of Americans who spend a big chunk of their time looking at screens for work or recreation. I even have blue-light filters in my glasses that are supposed to reduce screen-related eye-strain — but are probably just a way for the store where I buy glasses to extract more money from me.
Still, it’s not eye strain I’m worried about. It’s brain strain — and brain drain. The combination of algorithms and AI have the potential to steal our attention, which, at the end of the day, is really all we have.
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I have a 22-year-old friend who calls herself an analog lover and tries to limit her screen time as much as possible. Ironically, she has a digital monitor that gives her a report on how many hours she spends looking at her phone.
She also doesn’t like smartwatches, because they also have tiny screens, and she limits texts to a few bursts a day instead of rush those little blue messages. My sons, who are 18 and 23, only respond to texts when they are good and ready, which I think is the right call.
According to government statistics, about half of teenagers today spend more than four hours a day looking at screens, and those that do have a higher incidence of anxiety and depression.
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For years, I didn’t worry too much about my screen time. If I had my phone out, it was to read an online newspaper, listen to a curated piece of music or to learn from a car-repair YouTube video. I consider all those to be life-enhancing activities, not something that I need to run away from.
What’s begun to scare me though is the rabbit hole of short videos. For some people, it’s TikTok with its sticky algorithms, which are the quicksand of modern consciousness. For me, it’s Reels, which is the Facebook version of looping video shorts.
Some people gorge on ice cream. I gorge on Reels, which is funny because it’s all empty calories. I don’t feel educated or informed by these videos, but it’s like they hit the dopamine button in my brain.
Reels knows I am helpless when presented a scroll of videos about NFL football, automobiles (both sales and service), monologues by certain comedians and classic funk music. It’s sort of an embarrassing list of interests, if you want to know the truth. But the brain, like the heart, wants what it wants.
Try as I might, I can’t seem to quit hitting that blue app icon with the lower case “f.” Then, because I am left-handed, my left thumb — which I use for scrolling — hits almost every “like” button in its path. This gives Facebook the impression that I’m an idiot who likes everything it shows me, including dogs with the “zoomies” and handy crock pot recipes.
The only thing that really works, is pressing the off button and placing the phone in another room.
At which point I turn on the TV to relax and detox from all that screen time.
Wait …
Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.