You Are Not Your Screen Time

That Sunday report? Not a personality test.

You know the one.
The cheery little pop-up that arrives like a smug Fitbit for your thumbs:
“Your screen time was up 13% this week.”

Cue the shame spiral.
The mental audit.
The, “But I was Googling something important!” defence you mutter to no one.

Here’s the truth:
You are not your minutes.
You are not your taps.
You are not your scroll history.

You’re more than the metrics

A number on a chart doesn’t tell the story of your week.
It doesn’t know if you were FaceTiming your mum, reading long-form journalism, or watching a YouTube rabbit hole about why wombats have square poo.

What it doesn’t recognise is you: a full, messy, human being navigating a tech-saturated world - juggling work, kids, relationships, boredom, and curiosity, all from the same glowing rectangle.

Why the Shame Spiral Exists

When we treat screen time like a moral scorecard, a judge rather than a clue, we miss the real point: Why were scrolling. What’s nourishing us, what’s draining us, and what’s just… habit.

New research published June 18, 2025 in JAMA tracked over 4,000 adolescents for several years and found that compulsive or addictive screen-use patterns - not total screen time - were associated with mental health risks, including an increased risk of suicidal thoughts. Key predictors included compulsive checking, distress when unable to use devices, and using devices to escape problems. Meanwhile, total screen time showed no significant link to these outcomes. The study. was led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: News.Weil.Cornell

Digital Compassion Over Digital Perfection

Shame makes us hide our behaviour -from ourselves.
Curiosity makes us understand it.

At LiVELY, we believe the goal isn’t to hit some arbitrary number.
It’s to cultivate curiosity. To notice what’s working, what isn’t, and shift gently.
Shame makes screens feel like moral failures. Curiosity turns them into signals.
And yes -we’re allowed to be messy, curious, and in learning mode.

Messy is allowed.
Curious is encouraged.
Learning is the point.

So next time that report pops up?

Don’t see a verdict. See an invitation.
Not to punish yourself -but to check in.

Because you are not your screen time.
You’re a human, living in the most connected (and distracting) era in history, figuring it out like the rest of us. And you deserve curiosity, connection, and clarity -not a weekly score.