What is Media Balance?
If you search Google for the media balance definition, you’ll see many sources describe it as “using media in a way that feels healthy and in balance with other life activities.”
This doesn’t mean social media in particular, but all forms of media including the internet, smartphones, TV, video games, and other ways of obtaining and sharing information.
As for life activities, this involves things like spending time with friends and family, enjoying hobbies, and going to school and work.
So, when you combine these concepts, the definition of media balance should make more sense. The point is to create a balance between the media you use and your regular activities.
Why is Media Balance Important?
Media is essential to our daily lives, right? We use it to see what’s happening around the world, stay in touch with faraway family members, educate ourselves, and of course, be entertained. But these digital-centric activities can’t replace physical ones like in-person conversations, family get-togethers, exercise routines, going to the park, or even getting fresh air.
It’s even more crucial now to create, maintain, and teach media balance along with social media balance. Kids and teens today didn’t live in eras without smartphones, computers, video games, and the internet like their parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents did.
Because digital dependency can negatively affect our children, let’s look at a few media balance facts.
📌 Data obtained from a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that “more than 1 in 10 adolescents showed signs of problematic social media behavior.” This includes the inability to control their use of social media resulting in adverse consequences.
📌 Another study referenced by The University of Edinburgh suggests that “teenagers whose screen time increases as they go through adolescence raise the risk of mental health problems later on.”
📌 Yet one more study conducted by UC San Francisco “followed a diverse group of kids from around the country for two years and found that more screen time was associated with more severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, inattention, and aggression.”
Not only must we teach our children how to balance social media with real life, but also how to participate in and appreciate tech-free activities.
However, it starts with us, doesn’t it? It’s become commonplace to send well wishes to a pal using Facebook rather than in person or to check our email at the dinner table rather than enjoy a family meal.
Let’s look at some media balance examples and methods you can employ in your daily life.
Ways to Achieve a Healthy Media Balance
Here are a few great starting points to improve digital habits and effectively balance media that can lead to an overall healthier well-being.
Minimize Mailbox Time With Clean Email
One way to reduce screen time is by maintaining an organized inbox. By doing so, you’ll spend less time checking emails, looking for what you need, weeding through the junk, and trying to stay up to date on important communications.
Using Clean Email, you can take advantage of task automation, pre-made filters, bulk unsubscribe, and cleanup recommendations.
Auto Clean: Set up rules to automatically move, mark, or remove messages as they arrive in your inbox. This is the ultimate mailbox tool for effortless organization.
Smart Folders: View related emails in one spot using premade filters that file messages into folders for you. You can see messages for social notifications, online shopping, food delivery, entertainment, and more, and take quick actions on them in bulk.
Unsubscriber: Remove yourself from multiple mailing lists at once. You can also pause subscriptions to keep your inbox clear without unsubscribing and resubscribe if you change your mind later.
Cleaning Suggestions: Receive recommendations to manage messages in bulk. This feature learns from your actions over time to provide you with personalized suggestions for maintaining a clean inbox.
You can use each of these features on any device—Android, iOS, Mac desktop, or web—giving you simple ways to minimize the time you spend managing email.
Manage Screen Time With Device Features
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others realize the importance of digital balance by providing built-in or add-on features for reducing screen time.
On Apple devices, you can use the Screen Time tool, on Windows, you can use Microsoft Family Safety, and on Android, you have Digital Wellbeing.
These tools help you minimize the time you spend on your device by restricting app usage after a certain amount of time. While many think of these features as ways to limit children’s screen time, they work just as well for reducing your own.
For instance, you can set time limits for those apps that distract you or tend to consume most of your time. When time’s up, put your device down or step away from your computer and engage in tech-free activities.
Create Device-Free Zones and Times
To foster in-person conversation, spend quality time with others, and even promote healthier sleep, you can set up zones and times when devices aren’t allowed.
💡 Excellent examples of this include the dinner table, family get-togethers, and dining out with friends. By keeping your mobile phone in your pocket in these locations or at these events, you can spend meaningful time with your loved ones.
Another good example of a device-free time to set is bedtime. Regarding screen time before bed the National Sleep Foundation states, “…exposure to blue light at night stimulates your brain into thinking it’s earlier in the day. Your brain slows or stops its release of melatonin, making it harder to fall asleep.”
Along with the science behind viewing your screen at bedtime is the risk of stimulation. Activities like texting or playing video games can increase adrenaline which makes it harder to relax and enter a sleepy state.
Finding the Perfect (Media) Balance
Media balance isn’t about shutting down your device, never visiting social media sites, and ignoring your emails. It’s about creating that balance between media and everyday life activities.
If you can play your favorite video game, post your pup’s picture on Instagram, and reply to your coworker’s email but then take your dog to the park, go out to dinner with friends, and meditate before bed, then you’ve struck a pretty darn good balance. Wouldn’t you say?
