Teens today are chronically online. Just look at anyone in passing or at lunch—heads buried in their phones, zero social interaction occurring. And while phones are a useful and vital resource in our world today, I think people have taken it too far. According to MyKidsVision, teenagers spend an average of 8 hours and 39 minutes per day on their screens. That’s over a third of the day spent staring at a device, lost in another world. I think that number is way too high, and teens need to start taking steps to lower their extremely high screen time.

There are a few reasons why I think people should lower their screen time. The first is an obvious one: it gives you time to do other things. There are so many activities people can do in 8 hours. You could hang out with friends, go on a hike, read a book, or just about any other activity you enjoy doing. Why choose to do something damaging, when you can do other enjoyable activities that benefit your health? Why watch videos of people doing amazing activities when you can take 10 steps and be outside? Many people today complain they don’t have enough time to do certain things. They don’t have enough time to do homework, or walk the dog, or really do any basic chores. However, if you took even half of the average screen time out of your day, that’s still 4 hours to get things done. Lowering your screen time gives you time to do more effective things with your day.

Another (and arguably more important) reason to lower your screen time is the bad effects that come with a higher screen time. According to MyKidsVision, increased screen time can lead to problems such as digital eye strain, myopia, and overall vision issues. Other activities can cause physical problems too, but in my opinion, your eyes are one of the most important things to your body. I could deal with a hurt knee from soccer, or aching muscles from basketball, but going blind would be much worse. It makes sense to stay away from these terrible eye problems, and the main way to do that is by lowering your screen time. Other bad things can come from screens, too. According to Yale Medicine, people who use screen time over 3 hours a day face twice the risk of depression and anxiety. In a day and age where we are in a mental health crisis, maybe lowering screen time could help with our mental health too. If lowering your screen time gives you time to go to therapy or even just take a relaxing walk, you could kill two birds with one stone— lowering screen time and improving your mental health.

One final reason I think people should lower their screen time is so they can have more social interaction. You can have some interaction on social media, but as we all know this often ends up being toxic and there is often some level of miscommunication that happens online. The hardships occurring in our world can be very depleting to mental health, and digging further into those rabbit holes on TikTok or other unreliable sites is not healthy. Having friends to take your life journey with can help by simply boosting your mood and your mental health, which is healthier for you. And yes, you can have online friends (and more access to friends online), but I have more fun with my friends when we’re laughing and hanging out together, not texting or sharing social media posts. Social interaction can be key for mental health and overall well-being, and I think people are missing out on that with their high levels of screen time.

So I keep saying “If you lower your screen time, blah blah blah.” But what exactly is a good way to do this? First of all, I don’t think completely getting rid of your screen is a good idea. I think lowering our time and dependency on our screens is. I know screens give us entertainment and valuable resources and interactions we would not get otherwise. So lowering it by doing another activity, such as talking with your family or going on a walk, is good progress. People generally can’t cut hours off of their screen time in one day- they’re so used to their screens that it’s like experiencing withdrawal. But I think if each of us made steps day after day to slowly lower screen time and do other activities that bring us joy, that would make our lives more enjoyable and fulfilling.