!Screen time
---
rawtext.club:70/~xiu
2023-04-29
Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia
---
I get a lot of screen time by virtue of my work and
hobbies. So when a day like yesterday comes along, where
I'm just hanging out with my mum, window shopping, thrift
shop shopping, chit-chatting and barely looking at my
phone, I feel quite good by the end of it. My eyes don't
feel as tired as they do on other days.

The rest of me still feels pretty tired. I have a bad
habit of forgetting to snack and hydrate when I hang out
with my folks, but that's something to work on next.

Generally, I've been minding the time I spend with a
screened digital device. Not necessarily to cut back,
more to raise the bar for what makes it worth having all
that light blasting my retinas. Gaming is of value, but
not just any game, and even if a game is deemed worthy,
it's only worthy for a time -- when it no longer sparks
joy, I thank it for its service and exit the program.

Lovely personal emails are of value, but once they cross
a certain threshold of lovely and personal and regular
and interesting, I've been getting the urge to go
analogue, write and send by hand and post, instead of by
keyboard and cable. My beloved Kaweco Perkeo and newly
beloved sharpened 2B pencils are a sensory joy to write
with. Until the hand cramp starts, but still!

Reading on a screen isn't so bad, but since returning to
paper books[1], I've much preferred this way to consume
words. So much so that I still have not felt motivated to
hack my ebook reader[2], since there are so many nice
physical books to pick up. I have been going around
buying books at library and charity sales, swapping books
at little free libraries and "take one, leave one"
baskets in local stores and cafes. There are so many
here. I wonder if this neighbourhood has other people
like me who do this, or if it's only hashtag-authentic.

But yes, my book piles are growing. "Date night"
sometimes consists of a big feed and a trip to a local
bookstore. I could not have afforded this in my 20s and
30s (for reasons other than avocado toast, thanks), but
being older, partnered, and living at a calmer pace means
a bit of both pennies and mental bandwidth to let more
books into my life. Having physical book reading as one
of my default hobbies has been very helpful for becoming
less of a screenface.

I feel like it would be good to have another 1-2
screenless hobbies set aside as well, especially when
games can exert such a heavy pull at times. Such
obsessions are short-term for me, so it's fine (and often
useful) to ride it out, but it feels risky to take this
for granted without a bit of exploration first. What is a
hobby that offers similar obligation-free engagement?
Everything on the NoSurf Activity List[3] seems like more
work (I have enjoyed most of those hobbies in the past
and can confirm they do feel like work lol).

Today it occurred to me that maybe housework could be
fun. Let me explain...

Housework is just tasks. Repetitive tasks like games are,
except they become "work" by virtue of the pressure we
put on ourselves to do them when there are other things
we feel like doing instead. "Feel like" is a loose term;
it can mean wanting to or feeling like you have to. With
gaming, recreation and entertainment positioned as a
normal way to relax and unwind, of course housework seems
like a chore. We are obliged to relax in sanctioned,
normalised ways. Housework is the obstacle.

So, then, what happens if you flick the psychological
switch that says you can relax however you bloody well
want to? If you take the pressure and obligation away
from housework, and remove the normalisation of only
certain activities counting as relaxation, could you make
a game from the mundane upkeep of life? It's less sexy,
but then so is OpenTTD compared to League of Legends, but
I'd argue OpenTTD is still more enjoyable to play.

So, recreational housework then. Maybe that's a hobby
worth exploring.

[1] gopher://rawtext.club/0/~xiu/phlog/2022-11-25-persnickety-paper-books.txt
[2] gopher://rawtext.club/0/~xiu/phlog/2023-03-18-nophone-projectfail-birdstuff.txt
[3] https://nosurf.net/activity-list