I’m ashamed to admit this but from my high school years to the beginning of my university journey, my phone screen time totaled roughly five to six hours a day. Looking at the big picture, that’s 89 days spent out of the year on a screen, comparing, editing, posting, scrolling, and wasting.
As a sophomore at Asbury University, I find myself in constant motion. I have assignments due at all hours of the day, friends to grab coffee with, family to stay in touch with and free time to magically wish into existence. In the hecticness of my days, my initial reaction is to reach for my phone and get away from all the static of everyday life.
It takes roughly 66 days to form a habit that becomes automatic. In this apparent 89 days of screen use, I could have learned a new language by now, played a new instrument, be better read, started a small business. But I didn’t. That is why I decided 2025 was my year to break free.
On Jan. 22, I made the trip to my nearest Walmart and purchased the cheapest flip phone and minutes package available to begin my experiment. After a grueling hour and a half trying to set up the phone, I officially had a new phone number, no social media, and the hope that I had a grip on this part of my life.
In a 2022 study done by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, research found that out of 198 participants from the ages of 21 to 27 in the ‘High Cell Phone Users’ (HCPU) category, 79.7 percent suffered from high depression levels, while 68.7 percent of the HCPU were reported to have high levels of mood disorders.
“An average American spends about 5 hours and 24 minutes on their phone every day and 57 percent of Americans consider themselves as ‘phone addicts,’” according to a study by GilPress.
Diagnosed with ADHD and depression around the age of 13, I am an HCPU. Social media was an escape from assignments, family, and internal problems I did not want to confront. With this avoidance, I can now say that I feel it is apparent that my phone usage contributed to the battles in my mind.
Of course there are sacrifices in switching to a flip phone. I have given up Maps, Spotify, a normal keyboard, and FaceTime. Yet I will argue that the positive outcomes outweigh the losses.
I still use my iPhone for small everyday tasks like clocking into work with a mandatory app, scanning into school events (which I need credit for), and the occasional directions. But when it comes to the other needless tasks, my iPhone stays in a drawer at my house.
Now, as I stand in line for coffee, sit in the cafeteria, and take walks I am forced to look around instead of down. I see babies and mothers laughing, friends talking, hear music playing, and see things I previously would have missed.
If I continued the way I was, I would have spent 15.75 years of the rest of my life on my phone. Now that I have flipped to the flip, I can decrease that number by 10.5 years!
There are many unknowns into the future of technology and the world is efficient in creating new apps, new devices, and new ways to spend time staring at a screen.
My encouragement is this: earn your years back, lift up your head and be witness to the world beyond the screen, you may just find something new.
Christina Smith is an Asbury University student studying multimedia journalism from Millersville, Md., who has a passion for people and their stories.
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