Editing 2223: Screen Time

{{comic
| number    = 2223
| date      = November 1, 2019
| title     = Screen Time
| image     = screen_time.png
| titletext = These new Bluetooth socks are great, but it's troubling to learn that I average almost 14 hours of Shoe Time a day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLUETOOTH-ENABLED SOCK. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] is reading the weekly report from an app on his smartphone that reports the average time each day that he has NOT looked at his phone during the hours he was awake this last week. This is a reversal of the more expected behavior for a {{w|screen time|screen-time}} app, which would normally report the amount of time spent looking at the screen. The point made by the comic is that mobile phone usage has become so prevalent in modern society that we are now actually spending more time staring at screens than not, and so we might as well just track the non-screen time instead.

In Cueball's particular case, if we assume that he is awake 16 hours a day (the average for most people), then his non-screen time average of 2 hours 48 minutes means that he spent more than 80% of his awake time last week looking at a screen. This means that while his 6% improvement is positive, he still has quite a bad habit. His previous non-screen-time would have been 2 hours 38 minutes, so he has managed to shave 10 minutes off.

Ironically, in order for Cueball to use the app, he has to be looking at his mobile screen. The increasing use of mobile devices in modern society has been a cause for concern, with many people arguing this leads to addiction, other health risks, or people simply not talking to each other.

The title text parodies the idea of a screen time app by describing a "shoe time" app, which would track the amount of time a person spends wearing shoes. It's unclear what the practical use for this would be, as there is little controversy about the prevalence of shoes in our society{{Citation needed}}. Possibly an app that tracks the amount of time wearing ''specific'' shoes could be useful; for example, a person suffering medical problems from wearing the wrong footwear could track the amount of time they spend wearing particular shoes, and correlate this with their health to figure out which ones are causing problems.

Possibly, the point being made is that use of phones have become so constant in our lives that using them for many hours a day is as unremarkable as using shoes for many hours a day. Or, since it's the socks that are Bluetooth-enabled, they may be reporting negatively about almost constant obstruction by shoes, whereas the socks would prefer to report a much lower "Shoe Time" score.

Some cultures have the custom of taking shoes off when in the house, so those people would boast lower (and presumably more favorable) "Shoe Time" scores.  It may also be a reference to the "{{w|shoe phone}}" on the television show ''{{w|Get Smart}}''. (If {{w|Maxwell Smart}} wore these socks, they could track his phone usage, because his phone was in his shoe).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball  is looking down at his phone. The text is what he reads on the screen, as shown by a zigzag line emanating from a starburst at the top of the phone.]
:Phone: Screen time report:
:Phone: While awake, you averaged 2<small>H</small> 48<small>M</small> per day looking at things other than your phone. That's up 6% from last week!

:[Caption below the panel]
:At some point, it starts making more sense to track '''''non'''''-screen time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]