{"id":19739,"date":"2025-08-13T06:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/a-moment-that-changed-me-i-resolved-to-reduce-my-screen-time-and-it-was-a-big-mistake\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:37:15","slug":"a-moment-that-changed-me-i-resolved-to-reduce-my-screen-time-and-it-was-a-big-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/13\/a-moment-that-changed-me-i-resolved-to-reduce-my-screen-time-and-it-was-a-big-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"A moment that changed me: I resolved to reduce my screen time \u2013 and it was a big mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was looking for liberation from the apps, but quitting them only made my life harder and turned me into a man obsessed<\/p>\n

I unlocked my iPhone screen at the precise moment that my weekly screen time notification appeared \u2013 accidentally dismissing it before I could take a screenshot \u2013 and promptly erupted into a rage. I had spent an excruciating week resolutely not looking at my phone, part of a month-long effort to whittle my daily screen time down from more than four hours a day to less than an hour, with the hope of improving my mental wellbeing (and possibly carving out a career as an inspirational speaker). But my efforts felt futile without being able to post evidence online about how offline I had become. I frantically Googled how to retrieve notifications (you cannot) and \u2013 briefly \u2013 considered re-creating my screen time report in Photoshop.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade or two, my efforts at self-improvement have taken various forms: the year where I read 105 books; the period during which I gave up all forms of sugar including, misguidedly, fruit; and a dalliance with shamanism that, I\u2019m sorry to say, included interpretive dance. Some might suggest I would be better off learning to cook, or drive, or type with more than one finger, but they can\u2019t reach me because I no longer look at my phone.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nI was looking for liberation from the apps, but quitting them only made my life harder and turned me into a man obsessed
\nI unlocked my iPhone screen at the precise moment that my weekly screen time notification appeared \u2013 accidentally dismissing it before I could take a screenshot \u2013 and promptly erupted into a rage. I had spent an excruciating week resolutely not looking at my phone, part of a month-long effort to whittle my daily screen time down from more than four hours a day to less than an hour, with the hope of improving my mental wellbeing (and possibly carving out a career as an inspirational speaker). But my efforts felt futile without being able to post evidence online about how offline I had become. I frantically Googled how to retrieve notifications (you cannot) and \u2013 briefly \u2013 considered re-creating my screen time report in Photoshop.
\nOver the past decade or two, my efforts at self-improvement have taken various forms: the year where I read 105 books; the period during which I gave up all forms of sugar including, misguidedly, fruit; and a dalliance with shamanism that, I\u2019m sorry to say, included interpretive dance. Some might suggest I would be better off learning to cook, or drive, or type with more than one finger, but they can\u2019t reach me because I no longer look at my phone. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was looking for liberation from the apps, but quitting them only made my life harder and turned me into a man obsessed I unlocked my iPhone screen at the precise moment that my weekly screen time notification appeared \u2013 accidentally dismissing it before I could take a screenshot \u2013 and promptly erupted into a …<\/p>\n

A moment that changed me: I resolved to reduce my screen time \u2013 and it was a big mistake<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19739"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}