June 11, 2026

I'm not a fan of horror films, so what few scares I’ve got are from passing the mirror in the dark or seeing a spider in the bathroom. There was the time my brother hid behind the curtain and jumped out to scare me.

And then there was the day, four years ago, that still gives me goosebumps when I think of it.

They say curiosity killed the cat. In my case, too, I was swiping around aimlessly on my phone (not on any app) when I saw the words.

‘Screen time’

Huh, I thought, I wonder what this is.

Screen time is basically the time your phone is being looked at. It doesn’t include the time spent listening to music or podcasts with your phone locked. My average screen time was 6 hours a day. I did some quick math and realised that I’d spent 36 hours, which is 1.5 days a week, just looking at my phone.

I’m not alone. In 2024, the average Indian spent 5 hours a day staring at their mobile phones. This doesn’t include the time spent working or watching on the laptop/ monitor/ television. Together, in 2024, we’ve spent 1.1 trillion hours glued to our phones (FCCI EY Media & Entertainment Report2024).

Today, it’s a common sight to see a three-year-old who won't eat a morsel without the beloved company of Peppa Pig on their parents' phones. Many young people find themselves unable to work/ study without being distracted by their phones.

I know older people who can’t fall asleep without scrolling WhatsApp or YouTube on their phones.

But I was more horrified to hear an eleven-year-old who wouldn’t fall asleep without scrolling YouTube each night. I’m told she snuggles into her blanket, drawn over the phone and herself and scrolls away. Just before she falls asleep, her finger pokes out and grips her grandma’s pallu.

What have we done to our kids, our parents and worst of all, to ourselves?

A second of boredom is so unbearable that we must scroll our phones at the grocery store, in lifts, in front of the television, in colleges and even at the traffic signal.

I’m not a very social person, and thank god. Because who is texting you every minute of the day, making it necessary to carry your phone to the washroom. I don’t even want to imagine how one washes oneself with the phone in one hand and the faucet in the other.

Sorry if reading this evoked an unforgettable image.

This could’ve been a humorous essay about observations. You might’ve smiled, paused to recall the stories you’ve heard or seen before, even checked your own screen time. Maybe, if you were horrified enough, you’d look up ways to reduce your use of your phone.

But mustn’t this article about screen time do a little more than contribute to it?

Over the years, I’ve read lots of articles, watched videos and listened to podcasts to find ways to reduce my phone use. Some ways that worked for me are:

• Turning my phone into a black-and-white screen: I like to think turning my phone grey, makes the rest of the world more colourful and appealing. On Apple devices, you simply need to search ‘Colour filters’ and turn off the colour filters. On Android devices, you can look for ‘Grayscale’ (Settings> Accessibility> Visibility enhancements or colour & motion> Grayscale or colour correction).
• Uninstalling apps: Out of sight is out of mind. I’ve uninstalled most time-consuming apps that provide little value, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit. I either use them through a browser or install them temporarily.
• Tracking my screen time: I monitor my screen time a couple of times a day to see how much time I’ve spent that day. I also look at it on Sunday to see how I’ve done throughout the week.
• Non-screen entertainment: The most effective way is to entertain yourself without needing to look at your phone. I like to read books, write short stories, and essays, paint or go for a walk. Sometimes I’ll listen to podcasts or music but don’t look at the screen.
• A little black book: I like to carry around a small black diary and pen. I use it to write my new ideas, funny stuff, wise sayings and to-do lists. When I’m free, instead of my phone, I add to or read through it. I also hand-wrote a Sudoku puzzle on one of the pages to solve when I’m bored.
• Intermittent Screen Fasting: I delay the first time I use my phone by not turning it on before 10 a.m. and turning it off by 9 p.m. I don’t always manage the latter, but I try my best.

Recently, a popular author said he carries a book everywhere he goes, because you never know when you get free time. I think that’s a brilliant idea.

But sometimes, there’s just nothing else to do except look at your phone.

At such times, I’ll look around and make up stories about the people and things around me. Sometimes, I’ll strike up a conversation with a stranger (reducing their screen time). Other times, I’ll do nothing at all.

In the four years since, I’ve reduced my average screen time to 1 to 1.5 hours a day.

In a world that is always scrolling, perhaps it’s time to put our phones aside to smell the flowers in front of us.