As the day begins, some people tend to look forward to a cup of coffee or their morning commute. But with the digital age progressing, students have become more accustomed to staring at their phones whenever they have the chance.
Whether you are walking to Car Parc or any building on campus, there are students who have their heads down, not paying attention to their surroundings. With the new Apple Screen Time feature, this reminds students about how much time they are truly spending on their phones. However, will this help everyone?
Apple products are a staple in most households and many students can not live without the brand. The iPhone in our society is one of the most influential products; however, an exponential amount of time is being spent on this device. This is why Apple’s new software update is groundbreaking.
The new Screen Time feature provides the time spent on your iPhone along with putting a limit on each application of your choice. For example, if your email keeps giving you the “Check email” urge, try adding a limit to the application. If social media is causing you to procrastinate, you can now set limitations to avoid that problem.
Social media will be held as the most important innovation of the 21st century and without it everything would be completely different. Social media helped the world become smaller, allows entrepreneurs to promote their businesses, is a place where people can express their ideas, etc. Social media provides us with helpful ways for communication, but it often shades into the dark side of things.
There are many negative factors of social media. More negatively than positively in news, certain opinions are quickly diminished, fake lifestyles are created that lower people’s self-esteem, etc. If people limit their social media time, these problems could fade away for individuals.
For example, going on social media for 30 minutes every day might lower the negative factors. When you are on Instagram, all you see is someone’s good side of life because no one wants to show the bad. This causes a follower to wish for that lavish life or beautiful look, along with questioning their lifestyle, the amount of money they are bringing home and body shame feelings.
For my iPhone, I set a 20-minute limit for each social media app, along with a 30-minute limit on my email app. After the first week, I made the limit longer which allows me to feel rewarded.
In my first week of using Screen Time, it became difficult to put away Twitter and Instagram. I had to add more time to my limit because of my iPhone addiction. On average the screen usage for my iPhone was three hours; YouTube made up for one hour of that time. It might take a few months to draw in adjustment from Screen Time, but it is worth trying out.
Once people see how much time they spend on their phones, they might just use their phone less. One thing is for sure, more work will be done throughout someone’s day, especially if they are a college student. This process will be far from easy, but Apple giving their consumers this setting signifies a powerful start.
