Reclaim Your Reality

Screentime and Star Wars

I am a huge Star Wars nerd. I grew up in the age of the prequel trilogy, which left a strong impression on me. My childhood was filled with Star Wars legos, the movies, the TV shows, and playing lightsabers on the playground at school. My fiancé can attest that I find any moment I can to use a Star Wars quote in a conversation.

A couple of years ago, I had some free time over break and decided to watch some of these movies that had been so important to me as a child. They were just as fun as I remembered them. Nostalgia is a powerful drug! Yet, for some reason, I still found myself pulling out my phone regularly during the movies to scroll and check my notifications.

How many screens is too many? (Photo by Coline Haslé on Unsplash)

This is a common practice called “dopamine stacking,” where people expose themselves to multiple sources of engaging things at the same time. Most common is watching a movie while also scrolling on your phone, but many people enjoy watching something while also playing video games, or just keeping a TV show on in the background at all times. As pleasant as this can sometimes be, it is also extremely damaging.

The culture is slowly becoming aware of the problems of screentime. I probably don’t need to convince you how bad this is. It can feel really nice in the moment to “turn off your brain” and just expose it to a bunch of…