“Cell phones are the cigarettes of the 21st Century.” – Julie Christin Boenig (Digital Health Coach)
We hear the phrase ‘digital detox’ more and more, which broadly, is a great thing. However, I’d argue that this phrase has an issue. The problem with the word ‘detox’, as we see in places like diet culture, is that it implies a temporary stop. A reset to zero. A tidying up and readying of ourselves, in order for us to be able to tolerate the effects of our bad habits when they inevitably return.
Don’t get me wrong, the ‘detox’ has its place. And it certainly has taken many of us in a good direction. I, for example, have not stopped drinking entirely, but my bi-yearly ‘one month off drinking’ is certainly an improvement on a full year of uncapped alcohol access.
This goes for my digital life as well. I hate how addictive my phone is. But it is addictive. The effects of detoxes don’t last long and inevitably, a few weeks afterwards, I will catch myself scrolling nonsense on my phone and feel compelled to chuck it across my flat. Which, sometimes, I do.
Removing digital distractions from my life cold turkey is not only hard but also impractical. Our world functions, in a big way, through digital engagement. So, I have adopted a few habits that help to curb my levels of digital distraction, as opposed to eliminating them.
1. Night-time Charging ANYWHERE But Your Bedroom
When my wife and I go to bed at 10 pm, we know that we aren’t going to sleep until at least 11 pm. Sure, some of that has to do with the 4-month-old that sleeps next to our bed, but 90% of the reason is our phones. Scrolling and scrolling. Denying our bodies another hour of sleep we could do with, and lighting up the synapses in our brains, as opposed to dimming them in a sea of calm.
We used to excuse phones in the bedroom with the fact that we needed to charge them overnight. Turns out, there are plug sockets in every other room.
2. Leave Without Your Phone
If I am pooping out… to the shops, on a leisurely walk, to pick my son up from pre-school… I often leave my phone at home. I’m out for half an hour. I don’t need it. And do you know what, it was hard to begin with. I’d be bored on my journey and reach for a phone that wasn’t there. I was also horrified at how often I went to do this in the space of about ten minutes. But now, I open up to the world, I let my brain take advantage of the silence… it has its own thoughts instead of hearing other people’s thoughts through a podcast or something. It’s nice. You should try it.
3. Low Tech Mobiles
My friend recently got himself a second phone. It’s a Nokia 3310. Remember those? No internet. No apps. Just texts, calls, and Snake 2. This allows him to go out for a whole day, to be contactable, but to live without his pocket pinging for his attention ten times an hour (at least).
4. Non-Necessary Notifications
Do you need your emails on your phone? Or can you take them off, and only answer emails from your laptop during work hours? Ask yourself which notifications you actually want to know about 24/7. Do you need to hear from those six WhatsApp groups that you never actually interact with? Archive them if you don’t.
5. Screen Free Periods
Sometimes saying something like, ‘I’m going to watch TV less’, is useless. It’s too general. Set some proper boundaries. For example, my wife and I simply don’t watch TV in the evening between Monday and Thursday. We earmark that time for analogue activities; reading, writing, cooking… that sort of thing. We are free to binge at the weekend, but at least we do that knowing that we have engaged our energies elsewhere during the week.
By Chris Thomson
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