Peace and quiet: an almost lost commodity in our fast-paced, always-connected society. A screen here, a notification there, a new series there. We live in a time when we have to force ourselves to switch off.
Books are written about it, studies are carried out and they all come to similar conclusions: We spend too much time with screens glued to our faces. Our eyes and, above all, our brain can no longer rest.
Blue light, the extension of daylight
For a few years now, the screens of our choice have had an extra mode that we are getting less blue light and therefore less stress when it gets dark outside. You can adjust the color temperature so that your brain doesn't feel like it's still daylight.
Away from the screen
To make us aware of how much time we actually spend in front of the screen, iOS, Apple's smartphone operating system, for example, has an integrated tracker that measures how much time we spend with the device and which apps are robbing us the most of our time and attention.
Of course, the screen time for a person like me, who mainly works on a screen, is much too high. I spend up to 20 hours a week with an active screen on my smartphone alone. In addition, I spend about 1-2 hours a day on my iPad and about 4-10 hours a day on my computer screen.
So I spend almost half of an entire week in front of a screen. That's obviously way too much.
Notifications, notifications everywhere
Since I need many of the apps on my smartphone for work, I can't just delete them. Last year, I did four things that already massively reduced my screen addiction:
- Switched off vibration alerts, so my phone is almost always silent.
- I disabled notifications for most apps.
- Removed social media apps, so I have to use the web app.
- I'm trying to spend 30-60min before sleep without a screen.
That has already helped me a lot. I wrote about my shutdown ritual before, which helps me to unwind after work and not stress about it, when I'm done for the day:
Silvan Hagen
Back to the calm pictures please!
Sometimes I manage to take a picture that radiates calm to me. When I see these pictures, I often think about whether I should hang them in our apartment as well. I like to look at these pictures and remember how I felt when I stood in front of the motif and took the shot.
Below is a selection of my favorite pictures on the subject of tranquility:
