What’s to be gained from a Digital Detox?
Back in December I took a digital detox. One month off Instagram and Facebook (minus a couple of essential work related logins). And wow it was freeing. I had gotten caught up in the mindless scrolling, the comparisons, and the sheer loss of time to being online and not always having a lot to show for it. Since building on my yoga business, that brought with it more screen time and more blurred lines. I was spending more time online to engage with the yoga side of things, but then I'd find myself getting completely distracted and side tracked down rabbit holes, and come away feeling a bit defeated and deflated having lost time, energy and comparing my life to others (only human!) Anyway, I found the month off very, very beneficial. I said I would share some more about it and never did, so here we are in March! Better late than never.
So, here are some thoughts and pointers for you to take away that might help you make some postive changes to your digital wellbeing.
Awareness - the key to mindful scrolling and mindfulness in general, is bringing your full focus and attention to the present moment. Actually stop and read content, look at the photo, and become more aware of what you’re taking in through your senses. Become more aware of your reactions to posts, good, bad or indifferent. What impact are they actually having on your nervous system? Become aware of the movements of your thumb - is it on automatic pilot? Check in with what you’re actually doing online. Are you enjoying the scroll or are you just killing time for whatever reason?
Mind your energy - moving on from point number 1, having that awareness of what you're taking in through the senses is vital to your energy. If you’re seeing a lot of bad news for example, that’s going to impact on your mood. You may not realise it at the time, but you’re taking in a lot of visual and auditory “noise” all the time. It can be overstimulating for the senses, the brain and ultimately can be quite draining of your energy.
Declutter - get rid of all the accounts that deplete your energy or do not bring you joy. It doesn’t matter how long you know them or how close you might be to them, if you come away from their feed feeling flat, maybe it’s time to give yourself some online space from them. Unfollow or mute - make space for accounts you actually want to see content from.
It’s OK to be bored - we’ve become so used to picking up our phones to 'kill time’ be it in queue, on public transport, or on our breaks at work (guilty 🙋🏻♀️). Do we really want to spend every spare minute staring into screens? If it's what you feel you want or need, grand! You do you! But no harm in mixing it up; go for a walk, meditate, chat to someone, read a book, sort out that phonecall to the electricity company that you’ve been putting off, or GO TO SLEEP! (The latter is a personal reminder for me and my late night scrolling 🙈) Or maybe just sit there and actually be bored, you never know, you might feel a pang of creativity or have a spontaneous breakthrough of some sort. Sometimes it’s good to sit with our thoughts/feelings. I don’t think we give them enough of our time these days?
To be practical - we’re only human and sometimes we need to put in place some harsher measures than an intention to stick to our promises. I have been using some of the digital wellbeing functions on my phone. Don’t ask me how to set them up, but all I know is by 10pm, I get a little reminder to begin to wind down for bed. By 11pm, my screen will go black and white, making things less appealing to look at really. It’s also a reminder for me to sleep. I also have those reminders on Instagram to alert me when I’ve spent X amount of time on it. Sometimes I’ll be able to justify it if I’ve been doing yoga stuff, other times I’ll know it’s been mindless by the sheer shock when it tells me I’ve been on so long. I’d really recommend sussing out the options on your phone to help you break habits.
Speaking of habits - after having read a bit about habits (the book is called Atomic Habits), the more challenging you make it to actually engage in the activity you’re trying to reduce, the closer you’ll get to breaking the habit. So this is why I ended up deleting the Instagram and Facebook apps for the month of December. Despite all the digital wellbeing measures, I found myself somehow back into Instagram time after time. By deleting it, I realised how much I had been on autopilot as my thumb used to tap on the empty space where the app had been. So if you want to go hard-core like I did for that month, it was definitely helpful. Otherwise, maybe put the apps in a different folder, making it one step harder to get to. Or leave your phone in a different room when you’re watching TV - BE PRESENT!
My last point is just to say how freeing it was to not have social media distracting me. Maybe I feel this so much with having to do business through the app, maybe that’s why I felt the detox was needed. But regardless, the benefits were felt. I realised how much “noise” I had been taking in -opinions, comparisons, bad/sad news, etc., which is why I try to carefully curate my feed. I only follow what I want to see and hear, and limit my time. I also noticed a drop in my online expenditure - I am a sucker for those Instagram ads 😅 On the other hand, I also realised how much I gain from social media. I feel like I learn a lot through Instagram on things like yoga and business, and also have been able to make/keep contact with people further afield. It’s not all bad!!
Despite all of this, I can still slip into bad habits time and time again. But having the awareness of this makes the difference. Every now and then I feel myself slip again, I try to implement mini detoxes e.g. delete the app for a day. Something we could all probably benefit from every week maybe…
So what do you think?
Do you need a little digital detox? 🤔
