This week I decided to dive into my phone and look at my average screen time and what apps I use the most. My daily average screen time this past week was 4 hours and 28 minutes. I spent almost 21 hours on social media apps with a total of 31 hours and 17 minutes of screen time. Oh my gosh…. I am sure there are many people who blow me out of the water but this is more than one full day!

My most used apps in my phone are…

1. Messages
2. Instagram
3. Facebook
4. Safari
5. Snapchat
6. Tinybeans (a family photo sharing app)
7. Camera
8. Photos
9. Messenger
10. Reminders
11. TikTok

Does this list surprise me? Not at all. I know what apps catch my interests and which ones I scroll on the most. With my life having changed so much in the past year, I know that this would look much different if I was back in the classroom working and not on maternity leave. If I was working in the classroom I would definitely add Edsby to the list. Also my daily hours on my phone would be much less, however I would have to add in time spent on my work computer with emails, Edsby, Youtube, learning websites, etc.

I do like to try to limit my screen time with doing things such as walking my dog, cooking, and simply just being present around friends and family. I have found that I wind down at the end of the day better if I put my phone away for bed. I like the option of having my notifications silenced between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. so I am not bombarded with texts from my friends as I am trying to sleep. I think this helps with a healthy relationship between my well-being and screen time.

I noticed that there is an option on the iPhone to limit your screen time usage by scheduling “downtime” and limiting what apps you can use at certain times of the day, as well as setting limits for how much time you can spend on a given app. I would have liked this option back when I was studying for finals during my undergrad as I am a HUGE procrastinator. It would have helped with my productivity of studying and finishing papers in a big way.

After reading a few articles online I learned that the average American has around 7 hours of screen time per day and Canadians close with 6.5 hours per day. The article on Screen Time Statistics shared that countries like South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Philippines have the highest average screen time per day all over 9 hours. I was happy to learn that my average screen time is below the average Canadian. I am sure as our technological world progresses that these statistics will only go up in daily hours.