In this era of social media and smartphones, where companies’ main goal is to keep users on their products as much as possible no matter what it takes for that.

I feel that screen time is double edge sword. One side provides users the convenience, job opportunities, home delivery, education at home, entertainment and what not.

But other side is affecting the health causing more isolation, loneliness, depression, distanced relationships with friends and family, mental health issues and bad impact on children for parents.

In reality, cons of social media and smartphones are way more than pros. But the thing is we can’t just abandon it as the positives are there too and we can’t live without them. So, we need to find a middle ground where we can use these technologies in a way that doesn’t have a bad impact on our mental or physical health.

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Here are some tips that can help in reducing your screen time:

1. Set a daily limit for yourself and stick to it. Apps like FamilyTime can help you with this.

2. Give yourself some screen-free time every day. I mean it. Grab a book (not on a tablet or phone), but actual paper book and read it for 10 minutes and see how your mental health improves.

3. Avoid using your phone or other devices in bed. Several studies suggest that using phone before bedtime affects mental state negatively and often your body is asleep while your brain is awake with unintended anxiety and negative stress.

4. Spend as much time with your family & friends. Keep your phone out of reach when you’re spending time with family or friends. For adults, it feels rude to keep the phone on. For the kids, it gives them impression that phone is more important than themselves. This can affect the psyche of your kid while growing up and becomes a barrier between parent-kid relationship.

5. Turn off notifications. Literally social media companies set their KPIs to hook users and manipulate them to spend as much as time as possible. One way for this is the notifications which sets the trigger and get you back on their platform. Just kill the notifications, put the phone in Do Not Distrub mode or limit the notifications. Believe me, you aren’t going to miss anything if you use social media a bit less time. But this will literally change your life and the way you see it.

6. Find other hobbies or activities that you enjoy. Join a gym or sports club or do book reading or abstract painting and so many more activities you can do now. Physical activity helps in producing endorphins which are natural mood boosters. It also helps in improving sleep quality.

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