Digital devices have become an extension of ourselves, augmenting our abilities, our memory, our knowledge banks. We sleep with them beside our pillows, walk hand in hand with them along the street. Our cars have computers that tell us about traffic, and we can order groceries through our phones, or even our refrigerators.
The term “screen time” was first used, according to some sources, by journalist Tom Engelhardt in a 1991 edition of Mother Jones Magazine. The article “The Primal Screen” used the term in a discussion on children’s cartoons, and how the increase of screens in children’s lives were drawing them into a culture of consumerism at a younger age through exposure to advertisements and the consumption of media-based items, like action figures or themed lunch boxes.
For 30 years this term has retained its negative connotations: screens are bad, and as such we must limit the time we spend in front of them. The term is still commonly used, in research and in medicine, for recommendations of how much time is too much time in front of our devices.
Yet the nature of how digital devices are incorporated into people’s lives has evolved since the ‘90s. With the huge variety of ways people are using technology, the idea that the amount of time spent behind a screen is the defining characteristic of technology use is no longer a relevant concept.
Enter the “screenome,” a personalized digital blueprint of technology use. The term is a play on “genome,” the unique genetic blueprint that codes for an organism. The shared suffix -ome is fitting. In the life sciences it is often used to indicate something big and total: all genes make up a genome, all plants and animals in an area make up a biome, all proteins in an organism make up the proteome.
The screenome, according to a paper published this March on screenomics, is the record of an individual’s unique, disjointed daily experience on digital devices, as captured in a series of screenshots.
The paper, led by researchers from the Stanford University Screenomics lab, outlined a complete system for capturing a person’s screenome, allowing researchers to digitally look over their study group’s shoulders. Technology is used to capture screenshots periodically, store the data, and decode the images and text as an individual navigates their digital landscape.
As many social and cultural experiences are finding platforms in the digital world, researchers can use a screenome to investigate the more detailed threads of technology use.
Technology use is no longer as defined or as limited as it has been in the past, as the functions of devices are consolidated. Cell phones can play a soap opera (television), contact a friend (landline phone), play music (CD player), and catch up on the U.S president’s impeachment process (newspaper) from a park bench. This consolidation allows for a more fragmented browsing experience, where people can quickly bounce between functions.
The screenome can be used to ask questions about technology use that go beyond the length of time spent on a device. Can jumping between tasks and activities affect attention span, and if so, what type of task jumping? How are people using smartphones and laptops in conjunction to complete work, and is there a difference in tasks done on each device?
Researchers can also use a screenome to investigate questions about media use in different locations and demographics. Do women in China have the same social media habits as women in Canada? It can also capture incidental exposure to topics, such as ads, to see if it relates to actions later in media use.
Not all time spent in front of a screen is equal. A Netflix binge is not the same as researching for a 30-page essay, in much the same way that day drinking on an inflatable dinosaur pool lounger is not the same as swimming laps at the lake. Being in the same landscape does not mean the activities done there are equivalent.
It’s clear that screens are not going away. It’s difficult, and unrealistic for many, to restrict the time spent in front of a screen when the screen is essential to many functions of modern life. Three-quarters of Canadians own a smartphone, and 96 per cent of Canadians between 15 and 34 years old use the internet daily. This is reflective of the growing engrainment of the digital in our analog existences. It’s time to start looking at what we do on our technology instead of how long we use it and stop equating quantity to quality.
Illustration: Kayt Hine/The Cascade
