Is It Time for a Digital Detox?: COVID-19 Edition
With social distancing protocols and other pandemic-related restrictions still in place, technology has become a saving grace for many across the world. From working and studying to socializing and shopping, it seems as if our screens are the only things that have enabled us to stay sane during this long and gruesome year of social isolation. However, in the time before COVID-19, our relationship with technology was beginning to feel a bit strained, with a large majority of us growing uneasy about the amount of time we spent doom scrolling through our smartphones every day — while also finding it near impossible to take a break from digital devices. This growing angst around technology, which was later fueled on by The Social Dilemma (2020), a breakthrough documentary exploring the dangerous human impact of social media, led to what the wellness industry now calls a “digital detox” intended to reduce the amount of time we spend on the Internet.
Yet, it seems as if this trend slowly dwindled away at the start of the pandemic as reaching for your phone increasingly became the perfect coping mechanism for people looking to stay connected to friends and family while keeping up to date on urgent news. To put it in perspective, a recent report carried out by the World Advertising Research Center highlighting the global use of technology indicates that the daily online content consumption among consumers soared at the start of the pandemic, doubling on average from 3 hours and 17 minutes to 6 hours and 59 minutes. While such a statistic may not sound too startling given the fact that our whole financial and social lives now revolve around the Internet, too much screen time is proven to inflict a severe toll on our mental health, from depriving us of our much-needed sleep to increasing levels of stress and symptoms of depression.
I, for one, can attest to this. If you are anything like me, your daily routine during the pandemic probably consists of scrolling through disheartening news about a new strain of the coronavirus, listening to your colleagues and teachers monotonously speak for hours on end via Zoom, and maybe, if you are feeling it, hopping on the Peloton for a quick thirty-minute high-intensity spin class in hopes that the virtual instructor will speak some words of encouragement to you. All of these activities, which folded into my weekly screen time report released by Apple on Sunday, added up to put me at an average of 8 hours and 42 minutes per day, a 72% increase from the same time last year. Appalling as that was to see, the never-ending feed of tempting and anxiety-inducing information bombarding my phone every second of the day got me thinking that there has to be more to life than this energy-sucking virtual stimulation. Perhaps, it would be best that we all take a break from our devices and indulge in a simple digital detox.
But how can we live the kind of educated and connected lives that we need to amid an ongoing public health crisis without the use of technology? Good question.
Instead of completely going cold turkey with many of your digital devices and social media platforms, treat your relationship with technology like a diet. No, not your recent juice cleanses or extreme water fast that you just invested in to lose the so-called “Quarantine 15.” Rather, focus on making your relationship with technology a healthy one, by using it to seek out more meaningful and engaging content (quality over quantity) or perhaps by setting boundaries for screen time that is helpful (e.g., mindfulness apps, Zoom, workout videos, baking lessons) and for screen time that is harmful. Nonetheless, despite the fact that technology currently seems to run our lives (for better or for worse), most of us would do well to take one day a week to fully or partially detox from anxiety-ridden social networks and go on a hike in nature or simply take the time to read a magazine (yes, a print magazine) on the couch, allowing our minds to unwind and destress. By all means, technology is here to stay, so if you cannot take a “mini-detox” from your digital devices to free up some of that built-up stress, it is essential that you continue to use them in ways that educate, inspire, and add value to your relationships and everyday routines.
