For years, mental health nurse and business owner Evan Kurzyp couldn’t tell you what he did with the hours he spent each day on his phone.
“I’m one of those people who is naturally focused on a million things at once,” explains the Hobart father-of-two, “so I would be watching TV while doom-scrolling at the same time, or absent-mindedly checking my phone hundreds of times a day while also working on my business or trying to interact with the kids.”
“At one point, when I checked my metrics, I’d learn that I unlocked my phone 350 times in a single day, or regularly clocked up nine hours a day of screen time,” he continues, “and for what? I honestly cannot tell you what I did during those hours. I’d be brushing my teeth for two minutes and reaching for my phone to keep me distracted during the process.”
Seeing patients in acute mental distress – much of which was caused by their smartphones, was another wakeup call for the 37-year-old.
“Particularly the young people, I’d see them come in after experiencing significant bullying over social media, and yet still couldn’t stand to be separated from their phones,” he explains, “they needed to get their fix, even though it was their phones that were causing them the problems in part.”
A growing national crisis
Research from health insurer Medibank found that almost a third of Gen Z respondents (29 per cent) cite social media and ‘doom scrolling’ as an everyday thing that has a negative impact on their mental wellbeing, with 21 per cent of Millennials also reporting that social media and doom scrolling negatively impact how they feel daily.
The data also showed a clear link between lower mental wellbeing and specific app usage; individuals who rated their mental health as ‘below-average’ used TikTok significantly more (27 per cent) compared to those who rated their mental health as ‘above-average’ (19 per cent).
Maria Ruberto, founder of Salutegenics Psychology and member of the Medibank Mental Health Reference Group says it’s a story she sees play out in her own practice, particularly with young people.
“In practice, I look less at ‘minutes’ [spent on screens] and more at function,” she explains. “Does phone use displace sleep, crowd out offline friendships/activities, or become compulsive? When it does, we see more anxiety, low mood, and attentional dysregulation. Dialling back phones, restoring sleep, and rebuilding real-world connections helps.”
‘Treat your phone as a tool, not a room you live in’
For Evan, there was no one big catalyst, just a realisation of how much time he was wasting.
“For me, the issue was not the phone itself. It was the way it trained my attention,” he says.
“When every quiet moment turned into checking something, I noticed I had less space to think, plan and properly switch off. I work across business, eCommerce and health-related roles where attention and calm decision-making are not optional. The biggest change came from treating my phone more like a tool and less like a room I live in.”
Evan, who along with his wife runs wholesale pregnancy and ovulation test eCommerce business Fertility2Family, decided to remove his ability to scroll mindlesslessly with a radical decision: “I removed all social media apps off my phone, and I quit all social media apart from Reddit, which I use occasionally for work still,” he explains.
The results were instant – and troubling.
“I’m ashamed to say it took about a month to stop reflexively reaching for my phone,” he says.
“It was just such a part of my day. I’d open it, realise there was nothing to scroll to, then close it again. It took a while to get out of that habit.”
18 months on, though, Evan can’t believe the change in his life.
“For one thing, during my downtime, instead of laying on the couch looking at [my phone], I now just put it down and actually watch the show and just relax,” he says.
“It’s funny, but I actually feel more enjoyment out of just doing one task at a time, and not trying to spread my attention thinner over doing two or three things at once.”
He says, as a mental health nurse, he’s also hyper-aware of how the little lifestyle modifications add up.
“A lot of the time I would come home, sit in bed, and then say good night to my wife, but then still both of us would be awake, sitting next to each other, not talking, and actually scrolling for hours, just wide awake,” he admits.
“I have found that putting a restraint on actually going to bed and purposely sleeping … [has led to] definitely better sleep. Poor sleep, constant comparison, endless scrolling and fractured attention may look minor on their own, but together they can wear people down. Reducing phone and social media use gave me more control over those inputs.”
The most incredible change, though, is in the numbers.
“My screen time has gone from nine hours a day, down to one or one-and-a-half,” he says.
For context, over the 18 months that he has been without social media, that equates to nearly six months of waking hours not spent staring at a screen.
“It’s actually terrifying to think about it,” he says, “what was I doing with that time? I have no idea, but I am so glad I have that time back to spend with the kids and on being present in my life.”
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