My childhood memories consist of activities surrounding school and being outside when at home. If I wasn’t busy with some sort of extracurricular activity, I was at home playing outside in the afternoons after I had done my homework or studied for a test. Although we had a television set in our home, for some reason it didn’t attract much attention, except in the evenings. When Dad came home from work, after dinner, we would sit together in the living room and watch a child-friendly television program as a family. We weren’t allowed to speak during the program, but what was great was the time spent with my parents.

Getting back to afternoon activities at home, they usually included imaginary play, table tennis, lying in the hammock, or tending to the animals. There was no real longing to sit in front of the television at all. If it was raining outside, we engaged in imaginary play in our rooms, reading, or having tea with biscuits with Mom or Grandmother.

Are we missing life?

According to a study, screen time in the US was around 7 hours in 2023 per day. So let’s break that down. If it’s 7 hours per day, where does that fit into someone’s life?

• An hour before school or work, either when you wake up or combined with time at the breakfast table;

• An hour at school on breaks or at work when you’re having tea or lunch;

• An hour in the afternoon after school;
  

That leaves us with 4 hours that still need to be filled in somewhere. And where do you think that fits in? After work or in the evenings when we are supposed to spend time with our families, spouse, friends, church events, etc. Scary, right?

Friends and family

Most people have full-time jobs, and with that, their energy expenditure is high, which leaves them tired in the evenings. They just want to veg in front of the television or their cellphone screens. I totally get that, but when I grew up, there weren’t cellphones, and television time was only in the evenings. What do I remember doing, to recharge?

On weekends, we visited family, had family outings, and just spent time together at home, either outside or inside. Now, I understand that in 2024, there are single parents who need to work two jobs to keep the boat afloat, and grandparents might be absent in children’s lives due to living far away. This is the sad reality of today’s society. We are broken; we do not have the same standards anymore as our parents or grandparents. Might this be the problem with our brokenness these days?

Boredom

I have reached a point in my life where it bores me to continually watch television shows and movies. It depresses me that I don’t visit friends or family as often anymore. I long for more personal connections that leave me refreshed rather than drained after bingeing on screen time. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Eternity Ines wrote on Preen.ph how it was boring to binge watch TV shows in the lock down.

Do we remember the COVID-19 lockdown when our time was filled with TV or cellphones? Do we remember how we longed for human connection but couldn’t reach others due to the virus being highly contagious? So why have we made the decision to place ourselves under lockdown again, spending hours with our cellphones or TV sets instead of with our parents, children, friends, church community, colleagues, etc.?