Editor Morgan Dreiss has severe ADHD and says they always have to do at least three things at once. The result is an average daily screen time of 18 hours and 55 minutes. According to a recent WIRED report, Dreiss is far from alone.
For years, studies have warned about the effects of excessive screen time on our physical and mental health. But more and more people are rejecting this narrative.
Call them Screenmaxxers. They don’t try to intentionally log hours, but they are in front of their screens most of the day and don’t lose sleep because of it.
Is screen time a legitimate problem?
For many Screenmaxxers, their devices are less of a bad habit and more of a lifeline. Corina Diaz, who lives two and a half hours from Toronto, works in video game marketing and relies on her screen to stay connected to the world outside her wooded corner of Ontario. “I’ve always felt like screens connect me to things that are important to me,” she says.
Daniel Rios, a programmer living in South America, uses Discord as his main social media after many of his friends moved away. When he’s not working, he’s playing or watching TV. Cutting back, he says, would just mean “getting bored at home.”
Should we all stop worrying?
Not everyone is willing to go that far, but Screenmaxxers are right. Diaz believes that the general anxiety surrounding screen time ignores the real issues, which she believes, and I completely agree, are isolation, overwork and even addiction.
Personally, I believe apps like Instagram and TikTok are addictive. People may say this is a sign of weak willpower, but I’ve spent countless hours scrolling through Instagram reels to know that it’s designed to keep you trapped. No other medium has managed to keep me on its platform for as long as platforms with short content.
Additionally, several studies have proven that boredom has a positive impact on mental health, productivity and, most importantly, creativity. So if your screen time is much longer and you can’t reduce it, I would recommend watching informational or art content instead of spending hours every day scrolling through short videos.
