A digital detox means taking a temporary break from electronic devices like smart phones, laptops, and social media platforms.
Do we need digital detox?
Yes, a digital detox is important to manage the side effects of excessive screen time.
How do we know that we need digital detox?
If our body shows warning signs like anxiety, sleep disruption, eye strain, headache, difficulty in focusing, urge to check phone (immediately upon waking), checking social media every time you pick up your phone, feeling stressed if you didn’t check your phone.
Is digital detox important?
Yes, It is very important to reduce stress and reconnect with the real world.
It improves mental health and reduces dependency on devices.
Excessive screen time is connected to anxiety, depression, and stress.
Every notification on app or social media makes a dopamine loop, this creates the urge to check the phone. This also affects our ability to control impulses.
Doomscrolling is very harmful for everyone, it is the term for endlessly scrolling through negative, disturbing, or alarming news on social media or on the web, that creates anxiety or emotional stress.
Average human attention spans are decreasing because of endless scrolling.
Games are designed to be engaging and they have levels, reward systems that release dopamine in the brain. These gaming habits are making a negative impact on adults and kids too. It is affecting their physical and mental health too.
Digital detox is important for mental as well as physical health. It also helps to boost creativity.
Digital detox helps us to reduce blue light exposure which means better sleep quality. It reduces physical strain caused by devices like tech neck or digital eye sight.
How can we do digital detox?
People are switching to dumb phones to overcome smartphone addiction and reduce screen time.
If not possible turn off notification for no essential app.
Remove applications that waste your excessive time or cause stress.
Create No- Phone Zones like dining tables, bedrooms or washrooms.
Replace screen time with offline activities to improve mental and physical health.
We can use grayscale mode, it is used to reduce smartphone addiction. Bright, vibrant colors used in social media apps and games create a dopamine loop. grayscale mode makes our devices less visually appealing.
Do not touch your phone for the one hour after waking up or the one hour before bed. This scrolling immediately after waking may flood the brain with dopamine which creates addiction.
Engage yourself in creative hobbies.
Take a walk in the garden or just go for a run.
Physical gardening is an excellent activity to help with a digital detox. Spending at least 15 – 20 minutes with a houseplant is a rewarding activity that boosts our mood.
Reading a physical book is an effective digital detox activity.
Solve crosswords or sudoku.
Coloring pages are also effective digital detox activity because coloring pictures has a calming effect on the nervous system.
Play brain games or board with family.
Encourage kids for outdoor activities like cycling or any other sport.
Play sports like badminton, tennis or table tennis.
Play traditional tabletop games like carrom and chess.
Play a musical instrument.
Listening to classical music without visuals.
Doing household chores by yourself is an effective strategy to reduce screen time.
Cooking or baking different and complex recipes is an engaging way to avoid screen time.
Is digital detox difficult?
Yes, digital detoxing is difficult. It takes a lot of effort to break long and deep seated behavioral patterns and habits.
The more free time we have, the more addicted we get to social media so do your own chores like cooking, baking, organizing, plant care,
Choose your detox style.
Start with mini- detox or partial detox like limiting social media use to a strict 30 minutes – 40 min per day.
Use digital wellbeing features to set limits on specific apps.
Make your daily digital detox routine.
Less scrolling and more living !