Digital detoxing
It's 23.06 on a Sunday night and I ought to have been in bed for at least 36 minutes by now but instead I am spending a few moments to write this post. I'm doing this because I made a promise to myself that I would try to do it regularly. I think it really helps me process my thoughts, wind down from the busyness of life and declutter my brain a bit so it doesn't seem utterly foolish to do it before I go to sleep. Perhaps next time, I'll aim to be in bed earlier though.
Anyway, since last Saturday I had planned for my next post to be entitled 'digital detox'. I think I had read somewhere how a woman who'd written a book on reclaiming your life, pursuing happiness and all that is popular in self-help literature at the moment had chosen to detox from digital devices at the weekend. By digital devices she was referring to smartphones and internet. I think she still used the internet if she needed to on her computer but she certainly didn't use her smartphone at all for 48 or 72 hours. The effects of this intervention were significant and it's now her norm. She advised turning your mobile phone off and using the landline to contact people if required. It sounds so simple but my immediate thoughts were, is this a realistic option? I thought about how I try and make plans ahead of time for the weekend but how in practice they often change and so you need to contact someone to rearrange things. What about the times when you're running late for a meet up with a friend or something untoward happens and you need to make contact? Perhaps she accepts that these are exceptions and clearly if you have an emergency you are going to switch your phone on. Or maybe she presumes and depends on payphone or borrowing a friend's phone? I wondered how far she takes the 'digital detox' and whether or not it was something I could do.
As this weekend approached I had wondered if this was something I could think about trying, even if it was only for a few hours or one of the days. Unsurprisingly, the most I managed was spending about 90 minutes lying in Ashton Court without my phone. This is not an insignificant achievement for me I'll admit but it is a rather worrying insight into my ability to live my life without my smartphone close at hand. Even during those 90 minutes I noticed the urges I had to take a photo of the trees around me and post a picture on Instagram (my current social media forum of choice). As I realised that I didn't have my phone and I'd just have to share the moment with God I was able to truly rest and to drink in the moment. The freedom and peace that brought me in that moment I cannot describe and yet it was only a brief slot in my day.
I need to prepare for bed now so I am going to sign off but I really want to think about this idea some more. Is it possible to live more freely and rest more deeply 2 to 3 days a week by severing the ties I have with my smartphone? Would my friends and family accept this choice and embrace contacting me on my landline? Would I revert to checking my iMessage, Whatsapp and Facebook accounts on my laptop more regularly in order to stay in touch, thereby totally negating any beneficial effects? I suppose there's only one way to find out.
Anyway, since last Saturday I had planned for my next post to be entitled 'digital detox'. I think I had read somewhere how a woman who'd written a book on reclaiming your life, pursuing happiness and all that is popular in self-help literature at the moment had chosen to detox from digital devices at the weekend. By digital devices she was referring to smartphones and internet. I think she still used the internet if she needed to on her computer but she certainly didn't use her smartphone at all for 48 or 72 hours. The effects of this intervention were significant and it's now her norm. She advised turning your mobile phone off and using the landline to contact people if required. It sounds so simple but my immediate thoughts were, is this a realistic option? I thought about how I try and make plans ahead of time for the weekend but how in practice they often change and so you need to contact someone to rearrange things. What about the times when you're running late for a meet up with a friend or something untoward happens and you need to make contact? Perhaps she accepts that these are exceptions and clearly if you have an emergency you are going to switch your phone on. Or maybe she presumes and depends on payphone or borrowing a friend's phone? I wondered how far she takes the 'digital detox' and whether or not it was something I could do.
As this weekend approached I had wondered if this was something I could think about trying, even if it was only for a few hours or one of the days. Unsurprisingly, the most I managed was spending about 90 minutes lying in Ashton Court without my phone. This is not an insignificant achievement for me I'll admit but it is a rather worrying insight into my ability to live my life without my smartphone close at hand. Even during those 90 minutes I noticed the urges I had to take a photo of the trees around me and post a picture on Instagram (my current social media forum of choice). As I realised that I didn't have my phone and I'd just have to share the moment with God I was able to truly rest and to drink in the moment. The freedom and peace that brought me in that moment I cannot describe and yet it was only a brief slot in my day.
I need to prepare for bed now so I am going to sign off but I really want to think about this idea some more. Is it possible to live more freely and rest more deeply 2 to 3 days a week by severing the ties I have with my smartphone? Would my friends and family accept this choice and embrace contacting me on my landline? Would I revert to checking my iMessage, Whatsapp and Facebook accounts on my laptop more regularly in order to stay in touch, thereby totally negating any beneficial effects? I suppose there's only one way to find out.
Comments