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Writer's pictureChandz

Digital Addiction Vs Digital Detox

Have you ever gone 1 day without using your phone?


As the world stops and things begin to slow down due to Covid-19. Everyone is beginning to rely on technology more than EVER. We are spending more of our time on our phones, TV, IPad, Games Consoles and less time enjoying the simple things in life such as staring into the blue sunny skies or using our 5 senses to connect our mind, body and soul to things around us.

I decided to go on a 5-day digital detox to help see if using technology is good for us during self-isolation what can be the causes which affect our mental state.

The thought of self-care and departing from the social world seemed a little overwhelming at the beginning as I thought I wouldn't be able to socialise and stay connected with my family and friends. But here what I actually learned from my 5-day digital detox:


1. My attention span increased by a massive 50%. We humans look for distractions as it's part of our norm and we often use our phones to help us satisfy this 'craving'. That's why many of us develop this habit of scrolling though social media channels, playing games online or looking at photos from our camera roll to help satisfy this 'craving' and make us feel part of the wider society. 

 

During my digital detox I was able to self-discipline my mind to not use my phone during working hours to help my productivity and concentration levels. I began to notice a huge difference to the way I was working. I felt more energetic, productive and my creativity was at it's peak level. This helped me boost my mindset and help me feel good inside as the end of the day I can tell myself all the productive things I manage to complete in one day.  


2. Healthy Mind- Everyday our minds are registered on autopilot. The first thing we do when we wake up is look at our phones and read the notifications we received while sleeping. We can spend hours scrolling on social media, watching videos, playing games or messaging our friends/family. This can take up most of our time by just sitting on our phones. This habit which we have revolved into isn't healthy for our mind or body.


The digital detox helped me wake up in the morning feeling productive and energetic. I felt like I had loads of time to start my day. By not using my phone before bed helped me rest my mind and begin to tell my body it's time for bed. The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed with no headaches. I was able able to pre-organise the things I want to accomplish during the day. This helped me set up my day ahead and keep my mind healthy avoiding stress and anxiety.  


3. Self-Care- When someone says self-care sometimes we forget how to self-care ourselves or we think self-caring is a form of us being able to go on social media to help us feel part of society. This isn't self-care at all.


In fact, self-care is avoiding all social media platforms and looking after YOURSELF. This means doing something which makes your inner-self feel happy. This can be from taking a bubble bath, face-mask, cooking a meal for yourself, reading a book or just sitting outside in the garden.


By focusing on yourself for at least 1 hour of the day will help us overcome any mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, depression.  


After my 5-day digital detox I felt 100% better about myself, my body and my mind.  

So, I'm not saying to go digital free and stop using your devices. In fact, creating a healthy relationship with our devices can help us become more successful and achieve great things in life. As we live in a society where multi-tasking is the new norm we sometimes find it hard to reach our full potential as this can affect our productivity levels and cause stress. Having time out of your busy schedule to use your devices can help control our stress-levels, improve our productivity, increase our creativity and detoxify any negative thoughts and behaviour we receive from others.


Simple strategies such as mindfulness, colouring, puzzles, word-search, listening to calming/meditation music or reading a book can help us transition our hard skills to our soft skills in helping stimulate our minds in a more creative approach. These strategies can help us overcome the fear of feeling FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) as social media can cause major mental health issues.


Studies have shown social media is the biggest cause to mental health which is becoming more popular among young children are they are growing up into a world which revolves around technology integrating into our schools. The way we can help ourselves is by becoming pro-active and restructuring our lives in a way which can help our mental health, promote positive mood and begin to love ourselves. 


Let's all share the love and help us promote positivity to others. If you're thinking about digital free- I would love to hear about your story. Likes and Comments are always welcome.


"Follow your dreams and never look back"- Chandni Patel


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