Screen-time that serves you.
4 minutes
consumer wellness
Apr 17, 2025
Gen Z and millennials are increasingly living much of their lives online– to their detriment, in some cases. Studies show that, especially for younger consumers, excessive screen time can worsen mental and physical health, in large part due to its addictive quality and the way that social media algorithms have incentivized and rewarded negative, anxiety-inducing, or controversial content.
Despite these concerns, the predominance of digital culture is here to stay. We’re not putting our phones down anytime soon. So what if media and visual culture could instead be a part of wellness– getting well, staying well, calming, inspiring, motivating?
There’s science to back this up.
1. Reducing Stress
One of the most well-known benefits of visual media is its ability to reduce stress. Studies have shown that images of nature, like serene landscapes or calming water scenes, can lower cortisol levels and help us unwind. For those days when you can’t spend 12 hours hiking in the mountains, visual experiences of nature– even from a computer screen– have a notable positive effect on a person’s anxiety.
2. Emotional Health
Art therapy has become a well-recognized tool for emotional healing, but in today’s world, we’re seeing engagement with this concept in a new shape: visual culture in video form. Engaging with art and visual culture can calm the mind, empower, help process complicated feelings, and promote mental well-being. Video and visual culture can help viewers answer questions big and small, and move through life’s challenges with a new sense of purpose and inspiration.
3. Mindful Visual Content for Meditation
There are countless studies to support the positive effects of meditation, but for many beginner practitioners, the act of meditation can be intimidating. Visual and sensory aids to complement the practice of meditation have been proven to help ease the way. Many creators produce films and videos specifically aimed at guiding viewers through meditative processes and promoting mental wellness.
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In short, our hyper-virtual, hyper-visual culture isn’t going anywhere – for better or worse.
Content that promotes wellness and mindfulness is now able to find a huge audience of plugged-in consumers, ready to use visual media to uplift their lives rather than drag them down.
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