This is for the ones who say time flies on holidays
Only four hours of our daily lives are really free time and 10 years ago, we spent, at most, one hour of it looking at a screen. According to research, today we spend almost all of it!
The 10-day long holiday in Turkey flew by, didn’t it? I wonder how many people remember how it felt swimming or visiting relatives. In the past, we would do four visits a day, have hour-long gossip, play with children and cook meals and it would only be the second day of the feast. But today, time flies and we have already left behind this year’s religious holidays.
Let me explain how time flew by: No one focused on anyone, apart from checking their tablet, telephone, television or any screen every 15 minutes. Unfortunately, we spend our time like this today!
I would like to share with you some research that will give you goose-bumps. A modern person spends approximately two-thirds of his day sleeping, working and commuting. Almost half of the remaining eight hours belong to the activities that help us stay alive, like taking a shower, cooking and eating. The other remaining half is the free time left for you. You can go to the cinema, theater, chat with your family, friends, take care of your children, read a book or play an instrument. And here is the terrible truth: Only 10 years ago, we gave approximately 20 percent of our free time looking at a screen. Today, we spend almost all of it!
A modern person spends nine minutes a day on “helpful screen time.” These are spent on the health apps, weather forecast and navigation apps. The rest is garbage! We check nonsense news, other people’s Tweets, sayings, photos or play games.
How many hours of the 10-day vacation did people spend looking at a screen? This can be the television, computer or tablet but it is foremost the telephone screen, isn’t it? People were busier with taking a photo of themselves or the scenery and putting it on social media and constantly checking who “liked” it, rather than sunbathing, right?
People were not really aware of the places they visited because they were busy uploading stories on Instagram, instead of smelling the air around them.
They did not see their relatives’ faces while they were busy taking photos and putting them on Facebook. They did not listen to their neighbors, families or friends because they were writing messages on WhatsApp.
They could not gossip or make any jokes with the people around them because they were busy following current news and jokes on Twitter.
Maybe they did not even meet their relatives, cousins or nieces during the feast. They made a WhatsApp group and sent greetings, sheep photos and funny videos through that.
Unfortunately, they did not enjoy this feast! They were constantly on their phones in order not to miss anything and eventually they missed everything.
My advice for the next big holiday occasion is to slowly put down the phone, tablet and the TV remote. Avoid looking at any screen for three hours. Focus on the surroundings, people, scenery, dogs, cats and the coffee fortune-telling. Visit and socialize. It sounds easy, but try it. It is actually hard! Take a 15-minute break every three hours to look at a screen and answer your messages and then afterwards, have another three-hours of real life!
Do this until the end of the vacation. You will see how refreshed you will wake up at the end of the vacation. You will live life fully. Your neck, eyes and soul will relax.