Tech Talk
By Tak Sato
Although I enthusiastically and confidentially mark off technology tasks on my chore list, I’m a lost cause when the task involves fixing things around the house — a leaky faucet, for example.
Lately, with help from my friend, Wally, I’m enjoying learning about and doing household repairs. Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. You may think Wally is a retired handyman, which he is not. He had many mentors while growing up, and when he was not jetting around the globe on his job, he volunteered at Habitat for Humanity for many years.
Now retired, Wally hasn’t stopped learning. He keeps the digital world at his fingertips, always connected to the internet through his smartphone. While TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other social media destinations provide bottomless entertainment, Wally relies on YouTube videos to satiate his craving for discovering new ways to fix things.
I recently mentioned to Wally that it was going to cost more than $50 to replace a pair of range top hood filters, a task that had been on my to-do list for years. The next morning, Wally told me that we should try something he saw on YouTube: cleaning the filters instead of replacing them. We did, and it worked. We cleaned the decade-old exhaust filters with hot water, baking soda and dish detergent. It cost less than $5.
Free & Convenient
As a teenager growing up in the ‘80s, the mother of disruptive innovation that we now know as the internet, had not yet gone from the government/military/university sector into consumers’ hands. I had other sources of entertainment and time-wasters that were the bane of my teenage life, just like screen time is for many people today.
We should practice good habits that keep us from wasting time online while still taking advantage of all of its benefits. Racking up too much screen time can be detrimental to your productivity and can hurt your real-world social interactions. A daily glass of wine can be good for your health; a bottle a day can be bad.
But why are some people prone to racking up too much screen time in the first place?
Many websites use sophisticated algorithms to keep viewers on their platform as long as they can, usually to see advertisements and other clever product placements within entertainment videos.
When my son asked to use TikTok, I tested it first to see if what I read about it being addictive was true. It was. My screen time tripled that week. Even though I knew I was testing it, I was drawn into the video clips pushed to me, one after the other. I just couldn’t put down my smartphone.
Needless to say, my teenage son didn’t get to use TikTok. Although as a geek Dad, I know he can see plenty of TikTok video clips without the app; I trust his self-control even though I couldn’t trust mine.
If you are disciplined like my friend Wally, building good habits to limit your screen time, the internet’s benefits outweigh its pitfalls. The key is to resist the sophisticated algorithms and stick to the task at hand.
So, how exactly can you do that? You can learn all about algorithms on the documentary/docudrama “The Social Dilemma,” available at archive.org/details/the-social-dilemma-2020.
Your smartphone records your screen time based on app usage. For iPhone or iPad (Apple), tap the “Settings” app icon and choose “Screen Time.” For Android smartphones or tablets (Google, Samsung, etc.), tap the “Settings” icon and select “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls.”
Screen time can be time well spent; just make sure it doesn’t take up too much of your time.
