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UCF | Wellness

This is Your Sign to Return to Physical Media

Raiya Shaw Student Contributor, University of Central Florida
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCF chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Like many people these days, I struggle to maintain a reasonable screen time limit. Despite the innumerable app timers and rules that I set for myself, I inevitably fall down the rabbit hole of doomscrolling. I snap out of it an hour later, having fully embodied what it means to be a “screenager.”

On one particular day, I felt exasperated after doomscrolling completely derailed my goals and motivation. When I expressed my frustrations to my roommate, the advice he gave me was simple: disassociate the phone’s functions. Some examples of this include: instead of relying on your phone calculator for class and homework, use a physical medium. Use a small handheld flashlight instead of your phone flashlight. Instead of using music streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, use a CD player (they’re not as expensive as you would think), vinyl record player, or a different device. The same goes for digital streaming platforms; instead of paying a monthly fee for Hulu, Netflix, or Disney+, retain your sanity and funds with a DVD player. 

record store vinyl
Photo by Natalie Cardona from Unsplash

While some of these examples could be considered “extreme” (it’s not always easy to go out and buy a DVD, CD, or record player), some are wonderfully doable. Other examples might be to wear an analog watch, use a physical camera, a physical planner, or a dry-erase calendar. 

The simplicity of this advice struck me; my mother had a CD player somewhere in our garage. I still had physical calculators I used in elementary school, the small flashlights that could fit on a keychain. Our DVD player had dust on it from not being used in years, and I could grab a physical planner from the dollar store instead of using the Notes app on my phone. 

Not only does disassociating the functions of the phone help to reduce your screen time, but it also forces you to be more intentional in your actions. For example, taking pictures with a phone camera can become mindless, as it’s so easy to do. Since taking a picture with a phone camera requires a quick button click, I end up with so many duplicates of the same selfie, sunset, or moment. Shifting that function to a physical camera forces me to be more mindful about the memories I want to capture. The same goes for listening to music or watching a movie; browsing Netflix mindlessly and selecting a movie to play with the click of a button is different from taking the time to pick out a DVD, turn on a DVD player, and insert a disc. 

The best part about this advice? It helps you reclaim ownership of your life. Undigitizing your belongings ensures that they can never be deleted or taken away from you unless you choose to do so. You are in control over the music you listen to, not an app; you are in control over the movies and TV shows you watch, not some CEO with multimillion-dollar properties. 

So let this be your sign to disassociate the functions of your phone, act more mindfully, and reclaim ownership of your life! 2026 has just begun, and it promises a fresh and healthy start.

Raiya Shaw

UCF '26

Raiya Shaw is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida double majoring in Sociology and English, Creative Writing with a certificate in service-learning. She has interned for the Florida Senate, The Florida Review, and the FL LEADS Project, and has been published in Blue Marble Review, Of Poets & Poetry, FLARE Magazine, and IMPRINT Magazine, among others. When she isn't reading or writing articles, she loves writing poetry, solving Sudoku puzzles, and knitting.