Ep 65. Digital Detox

We explore the alarming statistic that the average American spends seven hours daily on their phones—equivalent to 49 hours weekly or two full days—and provide practical strategies to reclaim this valuable time from the grip of technology.

• Average American spends 7 hours daily on their phones (49 hours weekly)
• Screen time negatively impacts children's behavior and mood
• Big tech companies deliberately design phones to steal attention
• Digital devices impact our ability to connect meaningfully with others
• Five strategies to reduce phone usage and reclaim your time
• Monitoring usage and setting daily screen time limits
• Being a good example for children
• Staying engaged in conversations without phone distractions
• Setting screen-free hours for family connection
• Establishing screen-free zones like the dining table
• Reclaiming time allows you to rediscover abandoned hobbies
• Embracing boredom as a catalyst for creativity

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Chapters

• 0:06 Episode Introduction
• 0:32 Time as Our Most Valuable Asset
• 1:15 Screen Time Impact on Children
• 2:26 The Attention Economy Explained
• 3:00 Five Tips to Reduce Phone Usage
• 4:34 Reclaiming Hobbies and Creativity
• 5:36 Episode Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Go Big With Gibb podcast, where we talk to professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs about their big wins. Hey guys, and welcome to this episode of Go Big With Gibb. I'm Gibb Irons, your host Today. I want to talk a little bit about cell phone usage and how it affects your life. Did you know that the average American spends seven hours per day consuming media on their phone? That's crazy, right? So that's 49 hours per week and that's the equivalent of two days per week.

Speaker 1: 0:32

If you're listening to this podcast, then you're probably a high performer. You're probably very disciplined and focused on self-improvement. If I'm describing you, this episode is for you. Think about it this way Time is our most valuable asset. As a high performer, time becomes more valuable than money or anything else. Why waste your time spending seven hours on your phone every day? It just doesn't make sense. There's so many things that we want to do in life that are important that we feel like we don't have the time to do. I've got some tips for you today that will help you buy back your time and win the battle against big tech and your cell phone.

Speaker 1: 1:15

I think we can all agree that we should limit screen time for ourselves and for our children. I don't know about you, but I have three small children and for our children. I don't know about you, but I have three small children, ages 10, 8, and 5, and I oftentimes watch them. On a Saturday morning, the first thing they want to do is get their iPads and a lot of times, by the time the adults have woken up, they've already consumed one to two hours of media on their iPad. It's very common that on those same Saturdays where they've been on the iPad for so long, they become little terrors. They have all sorts of behavioral issues and they're fussy and whiny, and I think that there's a science behind that. This screen time is giving them this dopamine hit. It's making them much more irritable than they otherwise would be.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Another thing that I thought about was how many times have you been on a family vacation or gone out and done something with a group of friends and instead of spending time together interacting, you look around and everybody is on their cell phone. Everybody's looking at their device, everybody's consuming some sort of media on their phone. So why is this and how did it come to be? I'm here to tell you today that it was by design. The big tech companies have designed your phone to steal your attention. Once you understand this, you can start to buy back your time. So we live in an attention economy and people are making money off of what you watch and how long you watch it. On top of that, our cell phones are tracking our location, and that data is being sold.

Speaker 1: 2:51

So, with all that in mind, I'm going to try this week to really really limit my phone time, and I want to give you five tips that can help you to do the same. So number one is monitor your usage. Most cell phones today allow you to check your screen time right on the device itself, and so this week, I'm going to make a goal to only have two hours of screen time per day. I think that's a reasonable amount. That will consist of checking my email, scrolling through social media, doing anything else that I do on my phone, but I'm going to limit myself to two hours per day.

Speaker 1: 3:23

The second tip is be a good example for your kids. If you're constantly on your phone and you're not engaging with your spouse, you're not engaging with your children. Kids are a product of their environment. They're going to pick up on that and do the same thing that you're doing. The third tip is be engaged. You know whether you're at work or at home. If you're involved in a conversation, put your cell phone away. Don't be scrolling through your cell phone as you're talking to somebody. I know that's a really common thing to do. If you really want to perform at your highest and best level, you need to be able to focus and give attention to the people that you're interacting with and to the assignments that you're doing. So number four is to set screen-free hours. Use this time to talk to your spouse and your kids and interact face-to-face. The fifth and final suggestion that I have for you is to set a screen-free zone, for example, the dining room table. Family meals are screen-free. If you employ those five tips, you're going to improve your mental health and become more productive. So I really encourage you to implement those steps in your life. Give it a try.

Speaker 1: 4:29

As you buy back your time, you're going to be amazed by how much you can do For me. I grew up playing soccer. I loved playing guitar and just writing music. As an adult, I've basically conceded that I just don't have time to do those things anymore. It's pretty rare that I ever go outside and kick a ball around, play music for fun I mean, I coach some of my kids' soccer teams and stuff like that but just those hobbies that you have let go of, that you used to love as a child. You probably still would love doing those things, and so if you can buy back your time put the cell phone away, limit your screen time you will be amazed by how much extra time you have to do those things that you love.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Another suggestion is go outside. You know kids need to have an experience of playing outside and a lot of times, even when we're bored, that's when our best creativity takes place. So boredom is okay. Kids don't need to be on devices all the time. If they can put the device away, their creativity is really going to grow. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Go Big with Gibb. I hope that was helpful to you and I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you for listening to this episode of Go Big with Gibb. If you haven't already, go follow us on social media at Gibb Irons. We'll see you next time.