It is no mystery that whatever the ideal and healthy amount of screen time (time you spend looking at a computer, tv or smart phone in any given day) is, for most of us, we are WELL over it. Your smartphone is an endless pit of dopamine, open up any social media app and you'll find millions of things to divert and attract your attention. When we are not looking at our phone screens, our eyes can find their way to nearest screen without a second thought.
The Different Types of Screen Time
This update seems like something that should have been done a long time ago, back when the iPhone was first created. ADDitude magazine references studies in their article about ADHD and screen time pointing directly to how detrimental it can really be. Too much screen time can lead to several not so friendly symptoms that individuals with ADHD are already prone too.
Not happy about these ones...
- Insomnia and poor sleep
- Addictive behaviors
- Changes in cognition
- Severe lack of motivation
The idea of screen-time and the effects your smartphone WILL have on your focus and motivation have always been topics of interest for us here at Brili. The distinctions between unhealthy screen time and healthy screen time are significant. Healthy screen time is hard to define, but you can sum it up like this.
Healthy screen time is watching educational programs, masterclass or zoom lecture, researching important information, staying on task and on time and of course using Brili. These activities provide value to you, help you learn and broaden your perspective. After all, technology in the right hands has done some really incredible things.
Unhealthy screen time doesn't have as much to do with what you are looking at, although that can hurt as well, as it does with the amount of time you spend sitting there, not doing anything else; not addressing your daily tasks, not getting outside and moving around etc.
How This Effects Us Here At Brili
Our app requires you to go on your phone and for us, we want to help you stay on task, achieve your dreams, and finish important projects, but there is only so much we can do. When you get side tracked from using Brili by more "un-productive" activities, we can only send you a notification like any other app.
Having swiped away more than a few notifications myself without reading them (my unofficial record 4,923,978 times), we here at Brili know that is sometimes not enough to motivate you away from TikTok or Instagram and back to the task at hand.
Would you look at that, by the mere mention of those apps, we lost more than a few of you! Jeez.
The Super Amazing Awesome New Features
So let's dive into the two new features, "Focus Mode" and "Notification Summary", that have us very excited for September when this new IOS 15 update is set to be released by Apple.
Fokus (Focus in German)
First up is "Focus Mode", which will allegedly allow you to, in the same way you access "do not disturb" mode on your iPhone, activate a "focus mode" that you yourself have created. This mode, pre-created and scheduled for a specific time, will allow the IOS software to block all unrelated notifications and content.
For instance, having a focus period scheduled for the first 3 hours of your work day, you will receive no notifications outside of that purview. No Tinder dm's distracting you during a meeting, no YouTube bells side tracking you during an important project for over 50 minutes, "nothing". The reason I am reluctant to use NOTHING there ^ instead of "nothing", is mostly because "time sensitive" notifications will always be allowed and the definition of that is still unknown.
The benefits for something like this first new feature are incredible. Paired with Brili, this would allow us to create an environment that is far less cluttered with distractions and help further your effectiveness in getting what you want done.
Benachrichtigung (Notification in German)
The second feature, "Notification Summary", is great if you've ever missed out on the best sleep of your life because a notification stopped you as you were about to slip into a comfort coma. It should have waited until the morning and with this feature it really could. This summary will allow you to postpone any or all notifications you get during set times to one specific time later on when you have time to look through and unpack them.
The benefits of this last feature are similar to the first, gone are the days of looking from one screen to another smaller one every 5 minutes. Seriously, that's about how often the average American looks at their phone everyday.
Let us know!
Let us know if you are as excited as we are for this upcoming IOS 15 update. Remember, since we've been so good to you, keep your Brili notifications up and running 😊 when this update hits in September 😉.