{"id":1177,"date":"2025-03-05T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asian-idol.com\/?p=1177"},"modified":"2025-03-06T14:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:59:00","slug":"why-you-should-make-your-phone-boring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/asian-idol.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/why-you-should-make-your-phone-boring\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you should make your phone boring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If Apple and Google really wanted to, they could be doing a lot more to integrate digital wellness features into their operating systems.\ufeff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I got my latest Screen Time report from Apple halfway through my daughter\u2019s first day at Disney World. Waiting in line for rides, I\u2019d been checking my phone reflexively, tapping app icons. Like many distracted parents, this triggered a pang of guilt that I was looking at a screen instead of being more present for my little one. I do it at home, too, and I\u2019d like to stop. <\/p>\n

Ironic that I was distracted once again by a notification telling me to look at my phone in order to learn how to look at my phone less.<\/p>\n

Screen time reports \u2014 the weekly roundups of time spent on various apps that Apple and Google send its users \u2014 are a cornerstone of digital wellness, a concept that\u2019s been around for over a decade<\/a>. To some, digital wellness might mean simply using their phone less, and to others, it might mean cutting down on distractions, like unwanted notifications. <\/p>\n

Following some public backlash<\/a> about how smartphones were exacerbating mental health issues for young people, Apple and Google gave people additional tools to track and restrict their device usage. In 2018, Apple announced Screen Time<\/a>, and Google launched its Digital Wellbeing features<\/a> for Android. These settings were essentially adult versions of existing features that let parents limit their children\u2019s devices, including setting time limits on certain apps. In effect, you could now parent yourself when it comes to digital wellness.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been seven years now, and I\u2019m not sure I feel digitally well. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been seven years now, and I\u2019m not sure I feel digitally well. While I\u2019ve experimented with a combination of hacks in my phone\u2019s accessibility settings and tinkered with third-party apps that nudge my behavior away from bad habits, like many people, I still look at my phone more than I\u2019d like to. And I still ended up being that dad at Disney World checking my notifications.<\/p>\n

There is one thing that has helped my phone habits, however. I made my home screen as boring as I could. And when that doesn\u2019t work, I just leave it behind.<\/p>\n

Screen time has always been a poor metric<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The mission of digital wellness tools from Apple and Google has always seemed confused<\/a>. After all, it\u2019s counterintuitive that tech companies would release a set of features designed to make you use their products less. Apple and Google don\u2019t actually want you to put your phone down. They just want you to like them.<\/p>\n

About a decade ago, a wave of anxiety that smartphones were damaging our brains and, especially, our children\u2019s brains hit the tech industry. In a 2017 Atlantic article, psychologist Jean Twenge asked if smartphones had \u201cdestroyed a generation<\/a>.\u201d The following year, two prominent Wall Street investors asked Apple<\/a> to study how its products were affecting our health. Screen Time was the company\u2019s answer. Google launched its Digital Wellbeing tools<\/a> around the same time. Many social media apps, including Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, and YouTube<\/a>, now offer features like these, too, usually in the form of parental controls.<\/p>\n

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3 easy things to do<\/h2>\n

Nobody should feel helpless in our app-saturated world. But you can update a few simple settings to make your phone less habit-forming. Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, offered three tips in a 2018 Vox video<\/a> that still make sense today:<\/p>\n

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  1. Turn off all nonhuman notifications<\/li>\n
  2. Make your screen grayscale<\/li>\n
  3. Restrict your home screen to essential, everyday tools<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    Apple\u2019s Screen Time reports show you some basic stats: total screen time, time spent on individual apps, the number of times you picked up your phone, and total notifications. You can also set time limits for apps as well as downtime, so that only certain apps are available for a period of time. Google\u2019s Digital Wellbeing reports are virtually identical. This is all buried in your device\u2019s settings, and on Apple devices, the data gets deleted after seven days.<\/p>\n

    This information is kind of<\/em> interesting if you\u2019re someone who likes looking at stats to spot patterns. It\u2019s almost like fitness tracking for your attention. But unlike Apple\u2019s Health and Fitness apps which, if you have an Apple Watch, will proactively prompt you to stand up or alert you to loud noises, Screen Time just passively collects this information and delivers it to you once a week through a push alert. <\/p>\n

    Although there\u2019s been a lot of focus on screen time for the past decade, knowing the amount of time you\u2019ve spent staring at a screen isn\u2019t all that helpful. And when it comes to social media apps, it\u2019s a really poor metric, according to Amira Skeggs<\/a>, a researcher at Cambridge.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhen you say screen time, that could be someone calling their mom on WhatsApp and having a beautiful conversation, really fulfilling, or it could be a 14-year-old looking at self-harm content on TikTok,\u201d Skeggs explained. \u201cAnd those two things are equated as screen time, and obviously those relationships to well-being are going to be vastly different.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The fact that these reports give you numbers and little actionable information is a well-covered topic. The New York Times reported as early as 2019 that \u201c\u2018Screen time\u2019 is over<\/a>.\u201d The Atlantic called Screen Time reports \u201cThe Worst Feature Apple Ever Made<\/a>\u201d last year, and Wired said \u201cTracking Screen Time Is Ruining Your Life<\/a>\u201d in 2023. These are melodramatic takes, in my opinion, but I do wonder if there\u2019s more that Apple and Google could be doing. <\/p>\n

    You need a nudge<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Together, the software made by Apple and Google are running on over 98 percent of mobile devices<\/a> worldwide. If Apple and Google really wanted to, they could be doing a lot more to integrate digital wellness features into their operating systems. A nudge here or there \u2014 something as simple as prompting people to take a break \u2014 could help billions of people stop doomscrolling. <\/p>\n

    \u201cIf it was a priority for them, you would be seeing better integration,\u201d Andrew Przybylski<\/a>, a professor of technology and human behavior at the Oxford Internet Institute, told me. He went on to explain that you can\u2019t easily export Screen Time data and you can\u2019t enroll in clinical trials about your device usage like you can with Apple Health data<\/a>. Apple does make certain device usage data available to researchers\u00a0through its SensorKit framework<\/a>.\u00a0Researchers also have very little insight into how Apple and Google develop Screen Time and Digital Wellbeing features.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere are just things in the last seven years that are missing that you would expect,\u201d Przybylski added. \u201cYou would expect that there actually would be some independent testing to show that they work.\u201d<\/p>\n

    I asked Apple and Google about integrating digital wellness tools into their operating systems. Apple declined to comment. Google did not reply.<\/p>\n

    To be clear, Apple and Google have updated these suites of features, but those updates have largely focused on parental controls. After cracking down on third-party parental control apps<\/a>, Apple introduced a Screen Time API in 2021<\/a> that enabled developers to build apps using certain Screen Time data without compromising user privacy. Google, meantime, released an alert called Heads Up<\/a> that tells you when you\u2019re walking and using your phone. And last year, Google quietly rolled out a feature called Screen Time Reminders<\/a> that nudges you occasionally if you\u2019ve been in a single app for too long. <\/p>\n

    When you compare these incremental improvements to third-party digital wellness apps, you can start to get a handle on just how much more Apple and Google could be doing. I\u2019ve spent the last couple of weeks testing out three popular ones \u2014 Forest, One Sec, Freedom \u2014 and although my reflexive phone-checking isn\u2019t cured, I\u2019m a lot more mindful about how I spend my attention looking at screens.<\/p>\n