Screens aren’t the problem, it’s what’s on them that’s rotting our brains
Technology is just a tool. Like every tool, it can make us better or it can waste our time. So the real question isn’t how much of it we use – it’s what we use it for, says Bhav Singh
We’ve spent years arguing about the impact of screen time on kids’ development, but I can’t help thinking that we’ve been arguing about the wrong thing.
Every few weeks there’s another debate about banning phones or limiting social media. It’s an easy argument to have because screens are right there in front of us. But screens aren’t the problem. It’s the brainrot we’ve filled them with.
Technology is just a tool. Like every tool, it can make us better or it can waste our time. So the real question isn’t how much of it we use – it’s what we use it for.
The best technology should help us become a little better than yesterday.
Over the last decade I’ve been lucky enough to work with founders, brands and teams who’ve been obsessed with exactly this challenge. At Sandbox, we started by helping children develop capabilities they’ll carry through life, and today we’re applying that same thinking much more broadly – from cognitive performance and healthier habits to resilience, wellbeing and helping people thrive in a rapidly changing world.
One idea keeps coming back: engagement by design. Skills by stealth.
Imagine if the same ingenuity that’s gone into keeping us endlessly scrolling went into helping us sleep better, think more clearly, become more resilient, manage our money more wisely, strengthen our relationships or just develop healthier habits.
My son Aryan loves chess. Every game he plays against AI makes him better, not worse. That’s exactly the kind of screen time we should be encouraging.
The next generation of great businesses will win by helping us make better use of the time we’re already spending on our screens. Less noise, less distraction. More curiosity, more humanity.
Adults need to build skills, but also habits
One shot of learning at the start of your life is not enough to see you through an entire career, but for too long, learning has been the preserve of childhood.
The AI age has prompted the long-overdue recognition that adults need ongoing skills development, and there’s been a flurry of bootcamps, courses and training programmes for people at every career stage.
But it’s not just learning skills and subjects that has to happen throughout life. Life no longer comes in chapters. It comes in parallel tabs.
Adults need to be supported to build healthy habits, just as children are. Developing the habits that keep us healthy, productive and happy requires practice and incentive, just like learning anything else.
One example: I’ve worn an Oura Ring for the last four years. My sleep score has stubbornly hovered in the 70s, so over the last few months I’ve been making tiny changes to push it into the 80s. Nobody lectured me, the data simply nudged me.
That’s why I was pleased to see the new NHS initiative to reward people for taking steps: a great example of an intervention that injects new habits into the lives of grown-ups.
In a changing world, development must be ongoing. Be it learning, habit forming or skill development.
With my boys earlier this year in South Africa. I love travelling with them – seeing new places, spending time together and coming home with plenty of stories and inside jokes. Apparently I’m the adult, although the evidence is often thin.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time in South Africa over the years, especially around Stellenbosch. I love the people, the food and the country’s incredible variety – from the Winelands and the Karoo through to the Wild Coast. It’s the places beyond the big cities that keep drawing me back.
Why I read history instead of business books
I’ve always found that history teaches the same lessons as business writing, except it does it through better stories.
Conn Iggulden is an all-time favourite. His Emperor series on Julius Caesar and Conqueror series on Genghis Khan bring ambition and resilience to life.
But if I had to recommend just one book, it’s Tim Butcher’s Blood River. It’s far more than a travelogue through the Congo; it’s about history and politics, and about understanding how people, nations and enterprises become what they are.
Stories from history are a reminder that to understand where something is going, you first need to understand how it got there.
Bhav Singh is director and executive vice president at Paramount, non-exec director of BBC Commercial, now founder and CEO of Sandbox Group