{"id":161003,"date":"2025-11-05T15:24:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.steelcase.com\/eu-en\/?p=161003"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:25:22","slug":"5-ways-screens-drain-our-wellbeing-what-to-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steelcase.com\/eu-en\/research\/articles\/topics\/wellbeing\/5-ways-screens-drain-our-wellbeing-what-to-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways Screens Drain Our Wellbeing and What To Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Toyoake, a town of 69,000 people in Japan, drew global attention when leaders proposed limiting the time people spend on their smartphones to two hours a day in the name of better health. The move may seem drastic, but it reflects a growing concern about the amount of screen time people experience in their lives. With artificial intelligence speeding up the pace of tasks, reshaping daily routines and changing how we interact, the question is no longer whether technology impacts our wellbeing, but how deeply \u2013 and what to do about it.<\/p>\n

\"5<\/p>\n

Here are five ways our growing use of screens \u2014 and the AI tools embedded in them \u2014 is impacting our wellbeing at work.<\/p>\n

1. Convenience erodes connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most meetings are now screen-based, with over half including at least one remote participant. For convenience, many employees don\u2019t even leave their desks to collaborate in person \u2014 50% take video meetings right where they sit<\/a>. The result? People are spending more time \u201cliving on screen\u201d and less time building the kind of in-person connections that strengthen trust and culture, which only adds to the feelings of loneliness people report today. Convenience, it turns out, is crowding out connection.<\/p>\n

2. Attention spans shrink<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2007, the year the iPhone launched, the average attention span on a task was two-and-a-half minutes. Today, it\u2019s a mere 47 seconds! Employees are interrupted by a meeting, email or ping every 2 minutes, on average, according to the Microsoft 2025 Annual Work Trend Index. Researchers say our brains pay a heavy price: Constant switching leads to stress, errors and slower performance. Psychologists call it the \u201cswitch cost,\u201d but most of us just know it as exhaustion at the end of a day spent toggling between tabs, chats and meetings.<\/p>\n

3. AI strains our brains<\/strong><\/p>\n

The explosion of AI-based tools is changing work as profoundly as the smartphone once did. Its promise is to improve productivity and efficiency, yet it\u2019s also cognitively demanding. \u201cIt\u2019s a way [of working] that strains the brain a lot more\u2026you\u2019re thinking all the time,\u201d says Thomas Seitz from the McKinsey Health Institute. Employees who consider themselves frequent AI users report higher levels of burnout (45%) compared to those who infrequently (38%) use AI at work (Quantum Workplace, 2024). It\u2019s still early in the AI era and interactions with it may shift from being mostly screen-based to other forms of input, like verbal commands. In the meantime, it requires more screen time than ever before.<\/p>\n

4. Multitasking undermines collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever answered emails during a Zoom call, you\u2019re not alone \u2014 55% of employees say they multitask and 39% admit to dozing off during screen-based meetings, according to research from QUIXY, an enterprise automation firm. But the data shows it\u2019s not harmless: Multitasking raises stress levels and makes people less engaged. Cameras off? The problem gets worse. The very tools meant to enhance collaboration often dilute it instead.<\/p>\n

5. More screen time, less movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just our minds paying the price. As people spend more time doing screen-based interactions, they\u2019re less likely to get up and walk to meetings or go chat with a co-worker. Due to the lack of movement, many office workers remain sedentary for most of their workday. That kind of immobility is linked to everything from musculoskeletal issues to chronic disease. When nearly every task \u2014 from brainstorming to casual check-ins \u2014 happens on a screen, movement disappears from the workday.<\/p>\n

Design spaces to prioritize wellbeing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese town of Toyoake may not succeed in keeping its citizens off their smartphones for 22 hours a day, but its experiment points to a question workplaces can no longer ignore: How do we design workplaces that prioritize wellbeing in a world where screens and AI are everywhere?<\/p>\n

Banning technology won\u2019t work, but balancing it will. Conference rooms can be designed to create a better collaboration experience between in-person and remote participants, so everyone can be seen and heard. Social spaces and rejuvenation areas can give people places to gather or experience solitude, either without screens or with unobtrusive technology. Steelcase\u2019s Community-Based Design<\/a> approach recommends providing a range of spaces \u2014 quiet zones for focus work and rejuvenation, high-performing spaces for collaboration and learning, and vibrant social spaces where people want to connect face-to-face. Being aware of the impact of increased screen time helps designers create places that help employees thrive in this new era. By giving people choice and control over where and how they work, organizations can provide workplaces that help keep people mentally and physically healthy, so they can do their best work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Screen time drains wellbeing\u2014counter it by balancing tech and designing spaces for healthy connection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37261,"featured_media":161005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"topic":[17293,672],"class_list":["post-161003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-ai","topic-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Effects of Screen Time & AI on Wellness at Work | Steelcase<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With screen time on the rise and AI tools becoming widely used in the workplace, many people are feeling effects on their wellness. 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