We spend a significant portion of our daily lives interacting with technology, usually hunched over our smartphones. By now we have plenty of studies showing that spending too much time glued to a screen negatively impacts both our physical (posture, sleep habits) and psychological (shortened attention span, anxiety, depression) wellbeing.
In spite of this, our average daily use of smartphones and tablets continues to grow every year. As a response to these negative effects, many companies including Apple and Google released features designed to help you reduce your screen time.
But these solutions are just baby steps toward improving our digital wellbeing.
Discover a better solution: Sentien Audio
How many times have you spent an extra 20 minutes on social media, and then regretted it? Social media apps in particular are designed to make you spend more time on them. With techniques like pull-to-refresh, which acts like a slot machine, and infinite scroll, which takes away the signal for taking a break, social media apps keep you hooked longer, and win the competition for your attention.
Last year, social media apps introduced features to help you be more mindful of your daily usage. Even Mark Zuckerberg set a priority for that year:
“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”
Together with changes in mobile operating systems, these initiatives are responses to the Time Well Spent movement introduced by Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist.
Despite all these efforts, the current solutions to spending too much time on screens are like banning plastic straws in order to solve plastic pollution. Changing your screen to grayscale or getting a notification about your limit for time spent on social media (which you can just as easily dismiss) are undoubtedly steps in the right direction, but they do not solve the addictive reward system of social media apps.
Changing the design of the core apps isn’t enough; something else must change. What can you do to reduce your screen time without compromising the benefits of your digital experience?
You can try to apply tips from tons of articles on “How to spend less time on your screens,” OR you can challenge the very paradigm of acquiring your digital experience exclusively through screens.
Digital wellbeing is one of our core values at Sentien. That’s why we decided to create a device that leverages current technological advancements to help you pursue your goals and truly minimize your screen time: Sentien Audio.
Sentien Audio is the first all-day wearable audio headset that allows you to communicate, connect, and listen through one device.
Although we can't change the addictive design of social media apps, we can make it possible for you to enjoy the digital space without the need to take your screen (phone) out, by transferring some of the typical digital experience to audio interface.
Sentien Audio sits comfortably on your cheekbones and conducts sound directly to your inner ear. It leaves your outer ear open, allowing you to hear your surroundings. It's always accessible and has the functionality you need to fit your daily needs.
You can connect to your AI assistant during your morning run, customize which notifications you receive and when, make a truly hands-free call, listen to music or a podcast during your commute, and more.
Read more about Sentien Audio in our first blog post or on our website.
Sentien Audio is our first step toward creating a seamless interaction between people and technology. Using Sentien Audio is natural and personal, which improves your digital wellbeing.
