4 minute read
Switching Off Rediscovering Life Beyond Screens
I am writing this month’s column having just got back from one of the most incredible experiences of my life –the RMB & Wilderness Ride for Rhinos. Quite apart from the incredible terrain, great company and phenomenal mountain biking, the three days I spent in the “wilds” of the Kunene Region reminded me once again of the importance of switching off.
Recent data suggests that the average person spends six hours and 37 minutes per day on screens. We use our phones in the bathroom, at the dinner table, and while “talking” to our family and friends. A recent photograph that was shared widely even showed a groom typing away furiously on his cell phone while holding his bride’s hand walking down the aisle. Granted, he could have been busy sorting out a last-minute crisis with the caterer, but still…
The Australian Institute of Family Studies says that some of the negative effects of screen time include behavioural problems, anxiety, hyperactivity, attention, selfesteem and psychosocial health, while the US National Institutes of Health highlight increased trouble sleeping and increased symptoms of depression. But quite apart from this, the time we spend staring into a screen means we risk missing out on all the other things that are going on around us all the time. Not just the big things, but the little ones that can put a smile on your face, like a butterfly fluttering by, a shooting star that for the briefest moment lights up the night sky, or even just the subtle grin on your partner’s face when a pleasant thought or memory pops up in their mind.
It is not just Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, though. I probably should not say this, but it is also the news! It is of course not the news itself that is the problem (despite what many people may tell you), but rather the way in which we consume it. Gone are the days where we would gather round the radio to listen on the hour or sit together on the couch to be updated of the day’s events during the 8pm TV bulletin. Whether it is constant Twitter and WhatsApp updates or the 24-hour news cycle presented by the likes of CNN and Sky News, we are being flooded with information from the moment we open our eyes to the moment we close them again at the end of the day.
According to Bohn and Short, even back in 2012, the average person processed “as much as 74 GB in information a day”, which is way more than we can comfortably handle and can very often be completely overwhelming. This sense of being overwhelmed in turn leads to exhaustion, characterised by things like mental sluggishness, emotional apathy and physical weakness. As American psychiatrist Edward Hallowell says:
“Never in human history, [have] our brains had to work with so much information as today. We now have a generation of people who spend many hours in front of a computer monitor or a cell phone and who are so busy processing the information received from all directions that they are losing the ability to think and feel.”
Worse than that, as he quite rightly points out:
“Most of this information is superficial. People are sacrificing depth and feeling, and are being cut off from other people.”
So, while you do not necessarily have to sign up to do the Ride for Rhinos (though I would highly recommend it), maybe think about ways that you too can “switch off”. Whether it’s not checking your phone until two hours after you get up, setting limits on the amount of time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or the rest of the social media platforms, playing board games or building a puzzle with your friends or loved ones rather than flopping down in front of the TV, or planning a hike or a trip to the dam on the weekend, find some way for you to limit your screen time and the amount of information you are taking in on a daily basis. You might be surprised at how much real life there is to experience!
Until next month; enjoy your journey.
