Are you addicted to your smartphone?
Do you compulsively check your email daily?
Do you scroll through your newsfeed every spare second you get?
How do you think this might be impacting your stress levels? While spending extensive amounts of time online and on your phone might feel great in the short term, compulsive tech habits can fuel anxiety and stress.
Here are some of the reasons why you should seriously consider undergoing a digital detox:
1. You will be in tune with what’s around you.
When we’re plugged into our devices, it’s easy to live everyday in a digital box and not even recognize what’s around us. I won’t go as far as saying that phones and other gadgets turn us into zombies, but we let the beauty of everyday life pass us by and we are not really present when we become overly reliant on them. We fail to take in the smells, sights, and sounds of life because we are too preoccupied with watching the next episode of a show and we just HAVE to know what Tiffany posted on Instagram this morning.
2 . Better Conversations.
Hashtags and viral videos are not real forms of conversation. I’m talking about sharing your perspective with someone, them giving you theirs, facilitating a deep exchange and learning through face to face interaction, These are the deep conversations that occur when we’re not so plugged in. In a world where answers and points of views are so often influenced by others, unplugging forces YOU to really think about issues and the goings-on of the world and share YOUR ideas.
3. New Mindset.
It’s amazing the changes that occur in people’s lives when they unplug for a while. You will probably find yourself getting back into some of those great things that you used to do like your gym routine. Because you’re not constantly distracted, you will be able to use this time to focus and take care of the things that need to be taken care of. You may find yourself using this offline time to refresh relationships, make career changes, and try other things that usually ranked lower on your priority list than Netflix and Instagram.
4. Memory enhancement.
How many of you know 3 phone numbers off the top of your head? Yeah… I thought so. We are so dependent on our devices to store all of our information that we don’t even realize how we’re negatively affecting our minds. I think of the good old days when I could remember everybody’s number- now that’s down to my parents’ and my sister’s. Apart from phone numbers, unplugging aids us to be a lot more present in interactions, therefore making it easier to remember even the most obscure details about people and things.This is extremely important because those, “Wow, I can’t believe you even remember that” moments are usually accompanied by laughter and stories that aid in the bonding and learning process.
5. Happier and healthier.
We all know of that tech-driven anxiety, that fear of missing out on the latest event, conversation, product or content posting. It can lead to internet addiction (yes, it’s a thing) and unnecessary stress. When you unplug, it allows you to put things into perspective and focus on what’s important in your life. You will start to have better relationships, be healthier, and happier. There have been countless cases and studies that demonstrate nothing but positives when it comes to taking a tech break. Unplug for a while and start seeing positive changes in your life!
There’s much more than just these 5 points but these are the ones that really hit me when I took a 3 month tech hiatus. All of these things manifested themselves almost instantly and got me thinking about what’s really important. I am plugged in pretty regularly because of business reasons and also to be aware of what’s going on in our world. That’s the beauty of tech devices, they bring the world right to you. If your morning ritual involves checking all your social networks and then rechecking them two minutes after, you may be in need of a digital detox.
Unplug to recharge!
Featured photo credit: Victor Hanacek via picjumbo.com
