Screen time, printed fiction, and recorded music as addictions

12/11/2025: Nowadays, the harms of excessive, uncontrolled screen time are widely discussed. I see screen time as an escape from the uncomfortable realities of life. 

In these retirement days, I can spend entire day watching films on TV, simultaneously browsing my smartphone. As soon as this non-reality time ends, the mind is stormed by disturbing thoughts of the real life. They may push me to another type of non-reality devices: I might pick up my e-reader for some romantic fiction, like Ayesha, or try sleeping with my smartphone (programmed for timed music) under my pillow. 

Recorded music and fiction (whether on an e-reader, or in print, like LOTR) are no different in that sense. Close the e-reader or the printed book, or if the music stops before I go to sleep, the mind starts attracting second-hand, destructive ideas: that is another screen time - of the mind. 

Therefore, when I call such unproductive times as non-reality time, I club all these devices into the category of, shall we say, the escape devices of our times. In the order of severity the list might read: Smartphone, TV, e-reader, printed fiction, recorded music, and one's own mind projecting thoughts detached from reality. 

The antidote to non-reality time would be, naturally, reality time: or time when a person faces and deals with what is happening in their non-mental (social/ political/ financial/ family/ physical) life. It is perfectly alright to escape from the real-life time to a non-reality time from time to time, to heal the mental wounds you suffer in dealing with life. 

So mental life with all those escape devices is not totally rejected. Only they should not be permitted to dominate one's life. Daily tracking of non-reality time  would be a good idea. Time spent on this writeup is not a non-reality time, as it addresses real life with escape devices.