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Apple Screen Time: One step forward for Humane Technology

Posted onAuthorNav Patel

What does it mean to spend our time well and do we spend any time to think about how do we spend our time? With more and more attention seeking applications and games, the smartphone can very easily become an attention grabbing slot machine. Every time we check our smartphone, it’s like playing a slot machine to check what we are going to get. It can be a photo that you were tagged in or emails in your inbox or articles in your news feed. If we don’t manage our time well, little bits of our time could slip away from us. Obviously, an all or nothing solution won’t work as the smartphone technology plays a very key role in today’s life. The technology does enable us to be well informed, productive, and better prepared for our day to day life. In order to have a healthy relationship with technology, we need to restore choice so that we can manage how the time is spent with technology.

The Center for Humane Technology calls this a digital attention crisis, as technology companies are constantly trying to design devices and services that grab user’s attention. According to Tristan Harris, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Center for Humane Technology, the handful of technology companies have the power to control our attention and how we choose to spend our time online. Tristan gives examples of how four major tech companies try to grab our attention:

  • Snapchat turns conversations into streaks, redefining how our children measure friendship.
  • Instagram glorifies the picture-perfect life, eroding our self worth.
  • Facebook segregates us into echo chambers, fragmenting our communities.
  • YouTube autoplays the next video within seconds, even if it eats into our sleep.

The big tech companies like Google and Apple have recognized this issue as most people use the smartphones as their primary device for entertainment, productivity, and social networking. In order to provide choice to the users, Apple has built a Screen Time feature right into the iOS operating system on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple introduced the Screen Time feature on iOS 12 to provide you with information on how you’re using your time on the device. The Screen Time feature allows you to see how often you use your phone, apps with most number of notifications/interruptions, time spent on apps used, and other details. The screen time feature also allows you to take action by setting limits for what you want to manage. Similarly, Google has also introduced the Digital Wellbeing feature in Android 9 for management of device usage.

How to setup Screen Time

  1. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > Screen Time.
  2. Tap Turn On Screen Time.
  3. Tap Continue.
  4. Select This is My [device] or This is My Child’s [device].
  5. You can now get a report about how you use your device, apps, and websites, any time you want.
  6. If you’re already in a family group, go to Settings > Screen Time, and tap your child’s name. If you need to create an Apple ID for your child, go to Settings > [your name] > Family Sharing > Screen Time.
    Note: To use Screen Time with Family Sharing, you need to be the family organizer or parent/guardian in your family group, on iOS 12. Your child must be under age 18, in your family group with their own Apple ID, and on iOS 12.

The usage information is divided in three main categories: Social Networking, Entertainment, and Productivity. If you tap the graph, you can see your usage, set limits for your Most Used apps, and see how many times a device was picked up or received a notification. There is also an option to Share Across Devices, which let’s you view your overall usage across devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID and password.

Four Key features of Apple Screen Time

  1. Downtime: This feature allows you to set a nap time for your phone, meaning you can schedule downtime to only allow phone calls and apps you choose to be available.
  2. App Limits: You can set daily limits for each app categories (Social Networking, Entertainment, and Productivity). This also allows you to turn off social networking and games to focus on productivity apps while at work. The app limits reset every night and you can remove the limits at any time. You can also remove the limit for 15 min or the whole day when you open the disabled app.
  3. Always Allowed: If you set the All Apps & Categories app limit, you can access certain apps even during downtime. For instance, Messages, FaceTime, Phone, and Maps are always allowed by default, but you can remove them if you want.
  4. Content & Privacy Restrictions: You can block inappropriate content, downloads, purchases, and set privacy settings to decide the type of content that appears on your device.

There is no doubt that usage of technology comes with consequences as well. The Center for Humane Technology’s main argument is that the tech companies are incentivized to grab user’s attention as it directly translates to revenue and the strategies employed to do so might not be the best for our well being. While Tristan’s argument is valid, the decision of how to the technology is still in the user’s hand. The user still has the choice to decide how they should use the technology. The tech companies also have the responsibility to provide a choice to the users, because this is the first time we have artificial intelligence trying to provide personalized information and influence the actions of the users. The features like Screen Time (in iOS 12) takes one step forward towards proving the users with a choice to manage the usage of technology.

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Source: Apple