Screen Time: A Young Person's Blog
- Young People
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Being online as a teenager is so normalised, how do we know when to stop?
A couple of weeks back, my friend and I were discussing the struggles of cramming all our schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and social lives into the same 24 hours that also share 6-12 hours of unavoidable sleep and a mandatory 6.5 hours of lessons!
After a tad bit of self-reflection, it came to our attention that possibly one of the key factors was our screen time. A quick comparison revealed, one of my closest friends' screen time sat at a staggering 8-12 hour average per day and mine at 4-5. I think it’s fair to say we were disappointed, it felt ridiculous that we wasted so much time! So we made a plan!
The whole reason The Breck Foundation set up our youth ambassadors programme was to discuss and confront topics that need to be taken seriously, because young people are more likely to listen if it’s a young person speaking! So, using this trusted theory, we set up a friendly bet. We decided to attempt to cut back our screen time over the next week. We would compare our results on Sunday, and whoever had the higher average had to buy a bar of chocolate for the winner!
After the first week our averages had already dropped dramatically. The incentive of not only getting chocolate but winning honestly made us so much more considerate about what we used our phones for as well as being far more aware of the amount of time spent on them! By the end of week 2 my screentime was 1:31 per day and my friend’s was 1:45! The bet is still going and has not only made us both more productive, but closer as friends!😊
Written by Megan, 14 years old at Imberhorne School
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