Screen Time

I have been glued to the screens – laptop, mobile, TV or tablet! My sense of being as if moves between screens for the past month… I blame the virus for this 😛

And I realized that we have encouraged our parents and grandparents to jump on this band-wagon of screen-time. In the past few weeks, my parents, uncles, aunts, and my grandmother have all joined various social media platforms to interact with their family more. I scroll through hundreds of WhatsApp messages every day in the morning – some of which are lengthy forwards that I conveniently skip – and then make it to the kitchen for my dose of caffeine. If I don’t catch-up with the piling messages, I feel an unsettling emotion of missing out on what is going on…and a tiny speckle of fear that I might miss something really really important. After I shovel through the pile of messages on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Signal, Telegram, and WeChat, I am ready to poke my nose in others’ business on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The virtual world has so consumed me that it took a hard-hitting wake-up call for me to snap out of it! This weekend, I finally, finally, finally, took it upon myself to clean some shelves. And my “finally” might have communicated that I had been putting this off for I don’t know how long… So, I plopped on the floor with random boxes overflowing with papers, sheets, and pencils wanting to be homed well. And I discovered my sketchbooks, notes, and unused colors waiting patiently for me. I wondered why I had put it off? A silent answer echoed, “Because you were glued to the screens.”

But that wasn’t the biggest hit. I was talking to my friend who had called to congratulate me on our podcast (what a sly way to sneak in some advertisement), and she casually mentioned how she thought I would make it big in my adult life. Then she quickly corrected herself in saying that I would make big “as and ARTIST” in my adult life. Later following up that I am a good researcher now, so that’s even better. I have mixed feelings about this conversation. In any case, I realized that my friends trust I have the potential to do something big in life. Maybe I could actually do something if I don’t let distract myself in the crowd of screens.

And then came the real wake-up call. A terrifying phone-call from my thesis supervisor about my work. And an email reminder about a pending article I was supposed to send out. And then a text message about a missed Zoom call. Oh! It was like walking on a tightrope and dropping all the eggs one after the other…which I was to carry to the other end. I recently used this egg metaphor here.

Maybe I will do better with little breaks from my screen-time. And so, I resorted to extensive to-do lists on paper. Someone would say that it is getting out of hand now, as I go about putting the lists up around the house – one in the powder room, one on the fridge, one by the stove, one by the medicine cabinet, a couple at my desk, one near the nightstand, and maybe a couple-of post-it near the plants! And I took to writing my thoughts instead of typing up and constantly peering at the screen!

And how has screen time fared for the family, you ask? I think they all seem to feel connected more with social media. However, every peep you make on social media now is open to more scrutiny from all possible angles because: a) people, in general, have a pronounced virtual presence, and b) ALL your relatives are now on social media and follow you on every site. I don’t mean to imply this as a ramification of family members on social media, but just an observation.

The screen time has done some marvelous things as well! I watched some of the excellent movies and short films from around the world. Our discussions on the short films and various aspects of cinematography, storytelling, yada yada yada have been very rewarding. And many of my friends and family members have now found common themes beyond discussing each other’s wellbeing.

Screen time also brought avenues to take some virtual courses that I always wanted to dabble with. So, learning Swahili is finally a go! 🙂 And I am finally taking up a dreaded task of digital illustrations. It is a steep learning-curve, but let us see how that pans out…

So I think, the screen time is a mixed addition to my life! And mostly here to stay with me after the lockdown is over. How is the screen time treating you?

D.