[p
For a lot of people, smartphones are a part
of their everyday life, checking: email, news, weather,
sports highlights, and browsing and creating content
on social media.
♪ [light] [phone vibrates]
But can constantly picking up our phones
have a negative effect on us?
I recently watched the
and it got me thinking about how much I use my phone
and how many times I pick it up per day.
[phone vibrates]
Are people on their phones too much
and should we be trying to reduce how many times
we pick up our phone per day?
I asked my friend Aries if he'd be interested in tracking
his phone use and participating in a challenge.
[ring tone sounds]
Hey, Aries.
Oh, hi.
Um, so I recently just watched this documentary called,
The Social Dilemma.
So I went to go check my own screen time and I was like,
really, really surprised.
I didn't think I was on my phone that much.
I didn't think I had that many pick ups.
Like, I was really surprised.
Yeah.
So, um, I will ask you, can you go check
your screen time? How many pick ups do you have?
74.
74, OK. Ah, does that number surprise you?
Not really, honestly. I'm on my phone a decent bit.
How do you feel about trying to bring that number down?
I don't know, because, like, I'm on my phone a decent bit,
but maybe, bring it down a bit, I guess.
OK, well, I am going to challenge you
to try to reduce your number of pick ups.
Let's check back in a week and see how you did.
OK.
- Bye - Bye.
Just so we're clear, Aries has agreed
to participate in our challenge to try to reduce his average
number of daily pick ups.
The challenge will last for four weeks and at the end
of each week, we'll check back in with Aries
to see how many daily pick ups he averaged.
OK, so this is the day after Isabelle challenged me
to that challenge, and honestly,
I feel like it hasn't been that hard yet,
at least right now, because I feel like I've been,
I've been doing pretty good, like, not on my phone and stuff.
I'm interested to see how Aries does,
and what tracking his numbers will tell us.
I'm also curious to see what an expert has to say about
our challenge and cell phone pick ups in general.
♪ ♪
Well, it's really a good idea to try to be conscious
of when you're using screen devices,
especially with phones, because, of course,
it's so easy to just take it out of your pocket whenever you have
a spare moment, whenever you're bored,
whenever you have a little time to kill,
but of course, that can turn into a really bad habit,
and then you find yourself doing it when you're with your
family or when you're with your friends
or when you're supposed to be doing something else.
So, I challenged my friend Aries to try and reduce
his number of pick ups,
and we would we would check back each week
and see how he did.
But I was wondering, do you have any tips or tricks
for him to help him try and reduce his pick ups?
The most important thing when we're trying to reduce
screen use is to become aware of the patterns in which
we use screen devices.
So we want to think about when we're using it.
We want to think about why we're using them.
The easiest one is just to...
every time you take out your phone,
say out loud why you're doing it.
So before you turn on your phone, say,
I'm going to check my email because I'm expecting an email
from so-and-so.
It's, that because is important because if you're honest
with yourself, a lot of the time you'll say,
well, I'm going to go on
or because I want to know if anyone has liked my photos,
and that's going to make you a lot more conscious
of the times and the reasons why we're using it.
Most smartphones record how many times we pick them up
and provide people with a daily average
over the course of a week.
Let's see how Aries did in his first week.
Hey, Aries.
Hi.
So, before we check your screen time,
I was wondering, how do you think you're doing
with the challenge so far?
I mean, I think I started off good.
The few days in the middle, I think I was slacking a bit,
but I feel like I've done pretty decent.
I feel like I can do better,
but I feel like I did decent.
OK, that's good.
So, um, yeah. Let's check your screentime.
Aries:
So, did that number go up or down?
It went down.
I guess I'll see you another week and we can see
how you did then.
OK?
All right, bye.
See you.
OK, so Aries is supposed to check in with me once a week,
but full disclosure, him and I are friends,
so I do see him at school
and we text each other sometimes.
Check out the text he just sent me.
♪ ♪
Sounds like this might be harder than he thought.
I've got 85 average pick ups, daily pick ups.
All right, and so, did that go up or down?
Ah, I think it went up a bit.
And how did that affect you?
I feel like I was a lot less productive, I guess,
this week than I was the week before.
OK, so I'm about to go check in with Aries
I did see him this week
and without going into too many details,
he didn't seem too optimistic about his numbers,
but let's just go see how he did.
Hey, Aries.
Hi.
Um, how do you think you did this week?
Awful.
Awful? Why?
Ah, I don't know.
I feel like I was just on my phone a lot, like, a lot more
than the weeks before.
All right.
Well, I guess let's go check your screen time
and see how much you've actually been on your phone.
OK.
Aries:
I was, I honestly had a lot of free time
where I was on my phone
and I guess I wasn't doing as much.
So, last week I spoke with an expert from
and he was giving me some tips on how to reduce
your number of pick ups,
and I thought since this was your last week of the challenge,
I would give you some.
He said to say out loud,
whenever you pick up your phone and like, say out loud
the reason that you're picking up your phone.
So, if I was to check the weather or something,
I would say, "OK, I'm going to check the weather"
I do that and continue on.
Could you try and use that tip this week?
Yeah, for sure.
For sure. I feel like that would help out a lot.
The challenge is officially over
and I'm about to go check in with Aries.
I'm excited to see if our tip helped him this week.
So, last week I gave you a tip to try and help
you reduce your number of pick ups.
Did you use it?
Yeah.
You did? And how did that go?
Having to say it every time I picked up my phone
was a little rough, but it was all right.
I think it helped a tiny bit.
All right. That's good.
Um, so, for the last time, let's check your numbers.
It's 71.
71. All right. So what do you think of that?
Uh, I think it's not too bad.
I brought it down from last week.
Do you feel like this challenge helped you notice anything
about your habits with your phone?
Yeah, it made me realize that, like, there's a lot of times
in the day where I'm just like,
I could do something, but like, I just sit
on my phone, I pick it up and I guess, I almost get like,
I guess, pulled into it,
and then I sit on my phone for a little bit longer
instead of just putting my phone down
and doing whatever I was supposed to be doing.
So, I'm going to take these results to our expert
over at
-Bye. -Bye.
See ya.
I wouldn't really get hung up on the number necessarily,
because a lot of it does depend on why you're using it,
when you're using it.
In the final week, we gave Aries your tip
and his numbers did drop significantly.
What does that tell you?
That mindfulness makes a bigger difference than just
trying to reduce things?
And certainly that's one of the things that you do see
around other kinds of interventions,
that when you make a broader change in your lifestyle,
when you're not just focused on a single goal
or focused on a single number,
when you're actually trying to be more thoughtful about it,
when you're actually trying to change the underlying things
that are driving the behaviour you want to change,
then you do get better results,
and so becoming more conscious about our media use
is going to have, in the long run
and sometimes the short run too,
better results than just trying to reduce it.
♪ ♪
So even though Aries was able to reduce his pick ups,
according to Matthew Johnson from
it's the awareness that Aries developed about his phone
that's more important than his actual number.
So whether you pick up...
..or put down, the important thing is to think about
why you're on your phone
and what you're doing with it.
Do you want to try our pick up challenge?
If so, share your experience with us at cbckidsnews@cbc.ca.
I'm Isabelle MacNeil for
and I got to put my phone down now, bye.
♪ ♪