In a world that’s increasingly dominated by screens, how does reducing screen time impact our mental health and our connection to the world around us?
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Joan Savage, a multifaceted author and former professor, who transitioned from academia to pursue her passion for writing. She best known for her gripping murder mystery novel Red Fever, which she published after overcoming a challenging journey, supported by her community. With a background in business management and a deep commitment to mental wellness, Dr. Savage spent years researching the significant impact of virtual reality on mental health, particularly for vulnerable populations like young boys and military personnel.
Together, we explore the pervasive issue of screen time and its effects on our lives. Dr. Savage shares her insights on how social media and technology can lead to feelings of isolation, and the importance of community in overcoming these challenges. She also discusses the balance between seeking validation online and forming genuine connections in a digital world. This conversation is full of meaningful insights and tips for fostering authentic relationships while reducing screen time—so you won’t want to miss it!
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Listen to the podcast here:
Navigating Life Beyond Screens with Dr. Joan Savage
Welcome to Action’s Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. One of my initiatives here in 2025 and something I’m trying to showcase is helping people cut down on their screen time. We’ve been seeing a lot more people take notice on how much of the excess time that we’re spending in front of what’s often referred to as attention grabbing or addictive technology is really impacting the lives we live as well as the mindsets that we adapt, so I’m going to be bringing on some guests from time to time that have their own really unique stories about how cutting down on screen time has changed their lives. Today, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Joan Savage.
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Dr. Joan Savage, welcome to the program.
Thank you. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.
It’s wonderful. So, Dr Savage, like myself, has a lot of different initiatives in life. I think, traditionally, we’ve always thought of people as their job title, or at least for maybe about 100 years in the 20th century mostly where it’s like, okay, you are a broker, you are a data analyst, but we also know that, in life, people are way more than that so I want to start out by introducing you to my audience as all the different things that you’re a part of right now that you have done recently and are doing.
Great. Too many things, I think.
Well, as long as it make you happy, right?
And it does, yes, you’re right.
So, yeah, so you start by telling us about all the different things that you’re –- yeah, all your different things.
So my –- I’ll try to do things backwards chronologically. I feel like that makes a little more sense. So, right now, my full-time job, I guess, is I’m an author. So, a year ago, I released a murder mystery. It’s got a little bit of eroticism in it but mostly it’s a murder mystery. It’s called Red Fever and it’s my first attempt at fiction so that was a nightmare getting it published. I was really blessed to have just so many beautiful people in my life to speak into that and help me get that done and give me the courage to resign from my job as a professor. I was an adjunct teacher for about three years at Florida Tech and I was so, oh my gosh, that job came at such a time when everybody was looking for a remote position when COVID had hit so I have no complaints about that. Although I never wanted to be a teacher, that’s just –- it fell into my lap. I knew it was what the universe was guiding me and, in COVID, everyone wanted to be home so I loved it. I took it, again, it wasn’t anything that I’ve studied for, it was business tech and business management. I think they saw technology on my resume and they were like, “Oh, she can teach this,” but it’s nothing I ever wanted to do. And then from there, I was working, I spent about six years getting my dissertation. So my full-time job was a research assistant at that point, and I mixed, and I think this is where much of my experience will be able to benefit your podcast here, I spent about six years being –– I want to say maybe a life coach is the best terminology for it, because I wasn’t technically a certified therapist. I mean, I was in school, although I worked with psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists and counselors who worked with me to help me develop my dissertation and part of that was, and I call it –– it’s mental wellness and virtual reality. So the suicide rate that we’re struggling with is just so high in certain genders, certain age groups, certain jobs, so like our military, any civil servant, really, firefighters, cops, physicians, really high suicide rate. Young boys. Young boys are like one of the hig