Perspectives in Design: Screen Time

0. Situate

For some background, context, and perspective, I am a Vietnamese-American, 22 year old female who grew up pretty comfortably in a suburb of Dallas called Grand Prairie (but practically Arlington) with my parents, grandparents, and brother all under one roof. I attended a private Catholic school my entire life until I landed at the University of Texas at Austin where I currently attend, live, and learn. Austin is part of the Texas Blackland Prairies ecoregion where maple trees, ferns, verbena, and acacia grow.

II. Purpose

For this project, I wanted to visualize my iPhone screen time data from the past two weeks (January 24-February 6). To relax lately, I have depended on my phone too much; it’s the first thing I pick up in the morning, the last thing I look at before I sleep, and.. it’s what I pick up when class has tired me out, and I need to turn my camera off. The data is broken down into the following categories:

• My total hours of screen time for the week
• My daily hours of screen time
• Hours spent on specific apps
• The number of times I picked up my phone
• The amount of notifications I got and from which app
• And a comparison of my screen time hours to the previous week of screen time

This dataset is informed by the phenomenon of quantifying and recording everything we do. Instagram is a way to record photos of everything we do, Twitter records every thought we want to share; and this screen time feature records every second our eyes are on the screen looking at those apps. It’s a feature of the iPhone that didn’t exist just a few years ago but that now allows people to set screen time reminders urging them to put down their phones, allowing me to realize I practically waste a whole day just scrolling on my phone and that maybe I would like to change that.

III. Attunement

I think there’s a lot more to this data than just the numbers — screen time for me isn’t always a bad habit or a waste of time. My experience on my phone ranges from moments of boredom and pointless scrolling to going down a rabbit hole on Instagram about how to make a dress or spending a few quality hours talking to a friend. My flow of feelings whilst using my phone is something like this:

IV. Relationship

Even though I “create” the data, I feel like a victim of it. I don’t want to know that I wasted 28 hours of what I consider my very “busy” life on my phone, and I am definitely uncomfortable saying aloud that I’ve lost a whole day of the week to my phone (agh!). I know I’m in charge of it, and I can change it, but as long as I’m not changing it, I’ll be mildly ashamed of it.

Although the data can make me feel like I have wasted so much time, I also don’t know that it’s all a waste. This may be typical of a 22-year-old, but I must say it: I love my phone. Not only is it brand new and snazzy, but my greatest memories are stored on it. My favorite people and new people are a text or phone call away because of it. My peace from watching an ASMR baking video before bed comes from it. And more importantly than any of that, it puts the opportunity to learn at my fingertips.

I think the data viz should show how much power a phone holds for me. In one sense, it may be seen that my phone has power over me, and that could create a relationship of disappointment or pity. But in another, more optimistic sense, it can also be seen as a tool I happen to love using. I hope the latter insight creates a relationship allowing the audience to not be too ashamed of their own screen time (in moderation of course) and also view the hours spent looking at this little piece of technology as a great gift and a window of opportunity.

V. Manifest

For this next section, I will be focusing in on the simplest parameter offered: daily screen time in hours and minutes. I want to see how my overall relationship with my phone has affected my peace and my daily inspiration by mapping out my screen time in a data visualization.

Growth Metaphors

My data is centered on fluctuating amounts and on what those amounts may produce or take away in my life so I wanted to find a metaphor of growth to create the visualization.

For this set of data in particular, I really wanted to try capturing the “ugliness.” As discussed previously, screen time isn’t a beautiful thing. It’s not sexy, it can be really shameful and embarrassing, sometimes I’m even afraid to check it. But, there’s a lot more to screen time than wasted hours on a phone. It might not be categorized into “good screen time” or “bad screen time,” but I know there’s a difference for most of us; for me, I know that good screen time brings so much more to my day than bad screen time takes away.

Dandelions were the best way I could think to visualize this dual nature. They look like flowers, but they’re weeds. Weeds are hated, but they can be helpful and healing for the soil. We can pull them out if we hate them, but in doing so, we don’t recognize that they’re doing their part too. They provide a tangible display of growth as something that can be both bad and good.

Mapping Variables

I mapped my daily screen time (hours/minutes) to the following emergent properties of dandelion growth:

High screen time / high dandelion growth → low screen time / low dandelion growth OR overpopulation of dandelions

I also wanted to attach meaning to the nostalgic experience of blowing on a dandelion stem when they are not in bloom, i.e. when they look like puffballs. When we take part in the tradition of making a wish and blowing on a dandelion, we’re spreading its seeds and allowing it to sprout up more and more. When I find an amazing YouTube video, I’ll send it to a slew of friends, spreading what brings me happiness, but it can also be a way to spread misinformation or ugliness. Again, both bad and good.

Spreading information or inspiration / blowing on a dandelion → wasting time / pulling out the weeds

Meaningful Thresholds

I can say that I enjoy my screen time and that it’s, on the contrary, productive for me, but too much is just too much sometimes. There is no set amount of time that is considered “healthy” to spend on a phone. It is widely known that looking at screens for so much of our day isn’t great for eye health, but true limits have only been tested for kids. This being said, there are very clear side effects to being on our phones, social media particularly, that need to be taken into consideration for this visualization.

Too much screen time can lead to:

• Insomnia and poor sleep
• Eye strain and headaches
• Social media addiction, because Dr. Tran says social media tools can be psychologically detrimental — with more people seeking external validation that leads to more depression and self-confidence issues
• Neck, shoulder and back pain
• Tendonitis, carpal tunnel and other repetitive-use injuries
• Sedentary lifestyle, which has been linked to heart disease, obesity and other problems
• Anxiety and depression

So, too many dandelions growing is also not a great thing. Past a certain number of hours, the data visualization should show that the soil crumbles or rots and damages crops trying to grow.

Planting Dandelions: a data visualization representing the good and bad of screen time through dandelion growth.

Dandelions start appearing around spring time, starting out as bright yellow flowers that mature into white puffballs that are picked and blown, spreading the seeds across neighborhoods. Gardeners will try to kill them to keep their lawns looking neat and clean, but there’s no harm in keeping them around. They help surrounding plants get much-needed nutrients and can improve and heal areas of poor soil by aerating it. Not to mention, dandelions have been used as medicine by the Chinese, Romans, and Greeks for centuries.

This visualization could be mapped through an entire day or an entire week, more dandelions growing and sprouting up as my screen time accumulates — the viewer can choose to see those dandelions as good or as bad. I think dandelions are youthful and bright, and I’m much more likely to see them as a flower than a weed, but to a different viewer, it could be a patch of unwanted grass that needs to be taken care of or reduced.

This viz is my take that screen time can be demonstrated through the growth of dandelions.