Digital Detoxing: The how and why of when it’s time to go black
Digital detoxing is all the rage, but is it right for you?
by: E.B. Johnson
Let’s start by admitting the obvious: our digital addiction is bad. Really, really bad. There’s not a single aspect of your life that isn’t somehow impacted by the digital revolution and — chances are — your smartphone is within arm’s reach right now.
In the U.K., adults spend an average of 8 hours and 41 minutes per day on their screens, while children spend an average of 6.5 hours per day on screens.
And that’s pretty standard across the western world.
Social media alone takes up an average of 2 hours of the given person’s day, and most people check their smartphones every 12 minutes. We’re hooked on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. We can’t live without our Youtube videos and Snapchat filters? Who takes pictures without them anymore?
We’re connected more than ever but, somehow, we seem further apart than ever before. Our reliance on the digital is extreme and it can have some adverse impacts on our general health and wellbeing when it’s not used in moderation.
For some, the best way to combat this is a good old-fashioned digital detox.
It can be good to take a step away from this digital world and reconnect with our analog roots — especially when we’re suffering from a tech addiction that’s impacting our relationships and day-to-day lives.
When it’s time to take the plunge.
Technology has made our lives better in so many ways, but the endless barrage of texts, emails, calls and push notifications can seriously frazzle our nerves and leave us feeling anxious and depressed.
More than wearing down our peace-of-mind, aspects of technology like social media actually leave us addicted.
In a previous article, I explained how social media giants like Facebook hook us on their platforms with addictive sights, sounds and rewards, which stimulate our brains in some seriously strange ways.
When we’re feeling particularly vulnerable (and who isn’t these days), this addiction to our tech can leave us feeling even more isolated and worthless. Tech addiction and social media addiction have been proven to decrease marital satisfaction, increase depression and anxiety and even amplify feelings of low self-esteem.
Living our lives in a digital space can reinforce our negative emotions and encourage negative behaviors, which isolates us from the passions and people that add the color and the zest to our lives.
If your life or your moods feel like they’re being dictated by the fluctuations of what you see online, it might be time to take a step back and unplug for a little while.
How to detox from a digital addiction.
Cutting off the addiction that’s running your life doesn’t have to mean a complete cut from the tech that you depend on. Rather than an anguishing process, a digital detox can be as simple as using your devices more consciously or using them more efficiently by restricting the time you spend in certain virtual realms.
If you’re a complete beginner to unplugging, welcome. There’s a few solid basics to completing a successful digital detox, but it takes a little effort.
1. Delete all social media apps from your phone and/or tablet.
Social media is, by far, the biggest temptation when it comes to a tech addiction. It’s also (funnily enough) the biggest offender when it comes to the negative impacts that technology can have on our mental and physical health.
Start your digital detox by removing all of your social media apps from your phone; this means Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler — all of it. Minimize your temptation to pick up the phone by deleting the treats that tempt you most.
You don’t have to delete your accounts or get unnecessarily dramatic about it. Leave yourself access to these platforms on your desktop computer, but remove them from easy access. Tech addiction is real, and if it’s starting to come in-between you and what matters most, you’ve got to get serious.
If you were on an intense diet, would you leave a box of Little Debbie’s in the cupboard? I’d hope not. Delete the social media apps and maximize your chance of success by minimizing your temptation.
2. STOP taking your phone to the bathroom.
This one shouldn’t take too much explaining.
Taking your phone into the bathroom is not only unnecessary, it’s disgusting. Home bathrooms are commonly found to contain shocking amounts of salmonella and e.coli. These particles, when they find their way into our bodies, can cause horrific gastrointestinal problems and are caused from floating particles of feces that make their way around the room.
If you’re willing to take your phone into an environment that is this dirty, you’re addicted, and it’s time to put the phone down.
Stop taking your phone to the bathroom.
Just stop it.
3. Turn off the notifications.
Cutting off on your digital dependency means decreasing your awareness of it at all times of the day. If you’re still not in the place where you’re ready to delete the apps, turn off your phone’s push notifications and make sure you’re not getting alerts every time a bot coughs your way on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
You can start by silencing just one or two platforms, and you can also start by just silencing them for specific periods of the day. Set up a time in which you allow yourself to check your phone but stick to it, and try to keep it to 20 minutes or less.
By giving yourself limited windows in which to interact with your phone and digital life, you can take back control of your reality and reconnect with the important things around you.
4. Keep your phone out of sight (and silent) for meals, get-togethers, meetings and conversations.
While you don’t have to unplug completely, you do need to readjust to life without your phone.
Leave your phone in your bag or pocket when you’re speaking to someone and make sure it’s on silent and out of sight for important events like meetings, get-togethers and meals with your friends.
Removing the distraction of your phone allows you to actually engage with the people and places that you come across, and truly live in the moment in a way that we struggle to in our virtual world. When we’re glued to our phones, we forget other people, and that erodes our relationships, makes us look unprofessional and leaves us feeling isolated and helpless.
5. Ease into the process.
Just like you would prepare before running a marathon, you need to prepare before plunging yourself feet-first into a digital detox.
Your ultimate goal, when it comes to breaking a tech addiction and finding yourself again, should be to learn how to live life without constant digital feedback. In order to do that, you need to get used to living without your phone for long periods of time.
Ease into that process by starting with short “no-tech” breaks of just 15 minutes. Turn off your phone, computer or tablet (completely) and put it out of sight (if possible). Do something else to distract yourself and increase the amount of time you go without your phone gradually.
You can also start the journey slowly by designating a single day to step away from your phone or a certain social media platform. For example, Saturday’s could be the day you don’t log on to Twitter.
There’s no right way to do it and there’s no wrong way to do it, but see how long you can go without access to the constant feedback that your phone offers. Your weakness (or strength) might surprise you.
6. Find a new fix in the real world.
Addiction to social media, just like other types of addiction, leaves us craving a hit that can make us feel just as good or better. If you really want to cut the cord and find the person that you were before tech, replace this tech-fix with a more positive real-word fix.
Take a moment to sit down and really consider the websites, devices and apps you’re spending the most time on. Ask yourself what it is about these sites that draw you in and keep you coming back for more.
Maybe the artistic photos on Instagram inspire you. Substitute that craving by visiting an art museum. Maybe the comedy on Twitter leaves you laughing. Go to a local comedy show.
Replace your cravings for social media with real life experiences that leave you feeling fulfilled and inspired to do more with yourself and your life.
When you’re able to honestly identify what it is you are getting from your digital addiction, you’ll be able to more honestly identify what aspects of your life are lacking or what you might need to work on changing.
A 7 day digital detox plan.
A digital detox isn’t about becoming some raven-sending iron age weirdo with no cell phone or connection to the 21st century. It’s simply about becoming more aware of technology in your life and the effects it has on you and your wellbeing.
“It’s about becoming aware of your own personal challenges around screens and gaining an understanding of what will help you overcome them,” says Tanya Goodin, author of Off and founder of Time to Log Off. “[It’s about] learning to live with technology in a way that’s healthy.”
You can complete a successful digital detox in 7 days. By trading the tech for technique, and spreading it out over a single measly week, you can transform your habits and your mood, happiness and productivity.
Day 1: Cut the cord.
Take it easy on the first day. Delete the apps that you’re most addicted to (if you can) and take a few minutes off here and there when you would otherwise be scrolling through endless timelines.
Also make the effort to separate yourself physically from your phone, and make it a little more of an inconvenience to deal with.
Leave your cell phone outside of your bedroom for the night, and make sure you part with it at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. If you depend on your phone for your alarm, make sure the volume is loud enough to wake you through the wall or down the hallway. Continue this all week and stick to it no matter how irritating it is.
Day 2: Make it a little inconvenient.
When you return home from work, place your phone in one central area and do not remove it. If you get a text or a call that you have to answer (or an urge to get on Facebook which just cannot be denied) make sure you go to your phone.
Instead of carrying your phone around with you, make it a little more inconvenient to get to. This will make it less desirable and you’ll very quickly come to realize that all those pinging notifications aren’t nearly as important as you once made them out to be.
(I have to get up from where? It’s what degree outside? No thanks.)
Day 3: This is a work-free space.
Our phones can be integral to our professional lives, but this is often what breeds the anxiety that we sometimes associate with the constant emails, texts and notifications.
After giving your boss and your co-workers plenty of notice, delete your work email from your personal phone and make sure that you don’t have access to it when you’re in your “off duty” hours.
For some, this is easier said than done, so if you’re someone who depends on your work email, make it clear that you will only be receiving email notifications (and thus responding) within set business hours.
Day 4: Learn to be social again.
The first few days of a digital detox are the most uncomfortable, but once you have the hang of setting some limits it’s time to learn how to be social again.
Call up your friends or your most-cherished family members and go out to lunch, dinner or just a civil night out — all while leaving your phone untouched.
Test just how much you desperately need your tech by leaving it behind while you reconnect with the people that are closest to you. While social media leads us to believe we are connecting with the entire world, we often use it to isolate those we care about most, so use this digital detox to get back in touch with the people that matter.
Day 5: Flip it into airplane mode.
Try going for a full day with your phone on airplane mode. Bonus points if you can do this for the full extent of a working day.
You can, of course, turn the mobile back on if you find yourself needing it, but try to go a full 24 hours without using your phone as a distraction. You might find it more challenging than you think.
Day 6 & 7: Keep your phone off for an entire weekend.
Complete the final purge of your system and test the true strength of your muster by going for an entire weekend without using your phone or any social media apps.
After giving everyone the heads up (and organizing any final details), turn off your phone at 7pm on Friday and don’t turn it on again until Monday morning at 8am.
Where to digital detox.
For some people a simple digital detox is life-changing and, considering the science, it’s not hard to see why. A digital detox is easy once you get the hang of it and can take place virtually anywhere.
For others, though, tech addiction is a lot more serious — and it takes a serious and drastic move to repair the damaging effects.
Welcome: The Digital Detox Retreat
People who suffer from severe technology addiction life is interrupted or disrupted in such a way that it becomes physically and emotionally damaging. Tech addicts can range from the hardcore video game players to the Instagram queen, but they all have one thing in common: tech is destroying the quality of their lives.
Digital detox retreats allow participants to decompress and remove themselves from the stressful environments that reinforce their need for technology. At these retreats not only do you get separated from the tech that’s crippling you as a person, you gain insight into the lifestyle techniques and practices that have led you down the road to addiction.
Guided by knowledgeable and experienced professionals, these retreats can often be the structured “make-or-break” that allows you (finally) to break free of your dependence on the likes, the loves and the continual feedback.
How a digital detox retreat works.
Digital detox retreats focus on reconnecting with reality and disconnecting from the fantasy that is the digital world. Rather than just getting cut of from cell reception, you get tuned back into your mind and body, focusing on the tenants of connection rather than disconnection.
Rather than sitting around and finding your own way to digital independence, these retreats allow you to reengage with the more colorful aspects of life, connecting to real-life people again through activities like art, writing, yoga and meditation.
Retreats like the ones offered by Digital Detox® offer tech-free wellness in off-the-grid accommodations. By separating yourself from your digitally saturated world, you can learn tools that will allow you to stay emotionally grounded and design a practice that will allow you to incorporate technology into your life in a more mindful and positive way.
Putting it all together…
Technology, much like everything else, comes with some good and some bad. It’s all about moderation. We can, however, become dependent or addicted to technology and our digital devices and when that happens, it can have some negative consequences for our lives and relationships.
If your digital life is starting to interfere with your real-life passions and friendships, it might be a sign that it’s time to detox yourself from your digital addiction.
Learn how to live without your phone by sliding into a routine that allows you to remove digital temptations for extended periods of time. Start slow, going without your phone or tablet for a few minutes at a time and build up until you can go a whole weekend without powering your smartphone on once.
To fix that itch, find real-world distractions that give you the same thing your social media does. Distract yourself by reconnecting with the world around you and watch as your mood and even your health improves dramatically.
It can be hard to ditch the technology, but it can be beneficial to our overall wellbeing. When we learn take a step back from our gizmos and gadgets, we actually take a step forward to finding our authentic selves.
Take a break and let yourself breath by putting the phone down and switching it off. When it all gets to much, get to the bottom of it by getting to the bottom of yourself again.
Unhook the tethers that technology has on your life and learn to live a little again.
