The challenge is everything that was analog in the 90s (music, phones, etc) now requires a screen. “Screentime” is treated as this black and white thing, but when the iPhone becomes the uber-tool-that-does-everything you have to focus on how it’s being used, not screetime writ large.
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One of the things that digital intermediation devours from social interactions is partial visibility (especially transitive visibility) outside the digital space (and often within it, but that's dependent on the social software and the impact is much more varied).
Glancing passively toward someone reading a book, versus watching a movie, versus chatting with someone else, all give quite different impressions. Glancing passively toward someone reading with the Kindle app, versus watching Netflix, versus chatting on WhatsApp, all on the same handset—you don't get nearly the same level of cues. And those cues help shape the social interactions around them.
Do measurements of 'screentime' normally include talking on the phone or passively listening to music? Or are you implying something different?
Screen time might encompass video chatting with a relative, reading a book on the Kindle app, watching a 2 hour long documentary, watching a 10 minute long tutorial on YouTube, writing an email, editing pictures of one’s vacation, managing one’s finances through a webpage or spreadsheet, etc etc etc.
Sure, there are always things you can do on a screen that are productive. But you need to way the difficulty of managing these activities with the potential upsides that only a screen can provide.
Funny how you say that, but I've got a dumbphone in my pocket and an MP3 player sitting in front of me.
None of this requires a screen. It's a choice you've made.