Over the past decade, technology has advanced every occupation in the world. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs, and consoles have taken over our lives. Thus, screen time has become a natural part of our day. While working, our laptops are our best friends since they enable us to perform whatever task has been given. Moreover, mobile phones have become a must for everyone. We talk on the phone, text, browse, or listen to music using our mobiles. However, too much screen time in a day could be fatal for our health. Thus, we must control this as much as possible.
Screen time
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, work from home has become a natural habitat. For college and school students, online lectures are the new normal. While all these reduce the risk of contracting the virus, it has rapidly increased screen time. For example, students have to sit for their daily lectures for 6 hours a day. Additionally, you always require a laptop nowadays to complete your daily academic tasks. On average, students have a daily screen time of 8-12 hours at least.
Why is excessive screen time wrong for you?
There may be numerous advantages to owning laptops and how they make your life easier. However, there are many disadvantages and dark sides of staring at a screen for too long.
- Vision: Staring at your screen for a long time can cause many issues with your vision. The amount of strain a pixelated display can cause to your eyes has been represented by numerous research papers and case studies. Moreover, poor posture and position could cause back pain and neck strain.
- Sleep: Many studies reveal that increased laptop and tablet usage causes more disturbance in sleep. It is incredibly critical for the body to gain enough rest for the next day's activities. However, excessive screen time may ruin your sleep cycle, and eventually, you will end up being tired all the time.
- Learning: Kids and young adults who spend a lot of time watching TV or on their phones will most likely suffer from Attention Disorder. Moreover, anything that affects attention will most likely affect learning. Thus, it could be fatal for your child's future.
- Emotions and personality: Researchers have discovered that kids who play video games for more than 2 hours a day will suffer many psychological difficulties. Playing violent games can cause an increase in aggression and reduce your sensitivity to other matters. Moreover, game addiction can shrink the brain regions responsible for empathy, compassion, and impulse control. It is challenging to estimate how long the brain takes to come back to normal after this.
- Weight and overall health: Watching two or more hours of TV daily can genuinely affect your weight, and this is true for all age groups. It is especially very deadly when it comes to being a teenager. Studies have also predicted high cholesterol and blood pressure among kids. It could prove fatal for your health, especially when you have your whole life ahead of you.
- Social Skills: Online experiences and social media can truly help you connect with people, fostering communication, and creativity. However, this isn't true when all you do is stare at a screen. Teenagers usually use their phones to avoid conversation with other people. It indeed will ruin their social skills and not render them confident enough to have a one-on-one chat. Thus, screen time needs to be reduced as much as possible.
How to become screen time savvy?
- Understandably, laptops, and phones are necessary to get you through your day. Even for college work, you are required to stare at a screen nowadays. Hence, it should be limited to that. Students must limit their screen time for academic purposes and have a strict limit on recreational use.
- Teenagers nowadays are always up to date on social media. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter constitute their favorite apps. It is genuinely critical to limit all your scrolling and texting to a considerable portion. You need to set a strict time limit for the usage of these apps and stick to it. It is essential for your goal of reducing screen time.
- If you live with your family, it would be advantageous for everyone in the house to have a screen freeze time. Everybody must keep their phones, laptops, and tablets aside. Additionally, you could all indulge in a fun activity to improve bonding and reduce boredom. A couple of hour break from your screens is healthy for everyone. You can also use Avosmart to limit screen time.
What are the functions of Avosmart?
Avosmart is a leading parental control tool, and here are the things you can do with it.
- Control: With the help of Avosmart, you can filter sites and set a time limit on gaming apps and anything that comes in the middle of your children's work. You can also set time limits on Android, iOS, and Windows apps.
- Manage: You can also manage the settings and get comprehensive reports of your children's activities from anywhere.
There is also a safe search mode for platforms like Google and YouTube. Avosmart checks the content of a site and blocks it if the site is not suitable for children.
Additionally, parents can monitor the YouTube activities of their children. They can block a particular channel or a video if they find that it is not suitable for them.