Switching Off
Baby steps to a digital
detox…
The only way you can get
eight hours sleep is if you stop looking at your phone at least a couple of
hours before bedtime
My moment of epiphany
came when scrolling through Twitter, I came upon an article on Internet
addiction, described it as the most widespread malaise of our times. As I
scrolled through the piece on my phone (where else?) I realised that I was
exhibiting all the classic signs of Internet addiction.
What was the first thing
I did on getting up in the morning?
I checked my phone to see
if any mails or calls had come through while I was asleep.
Did I check my social
media feeds even before I brushed my teeth?
Oh yes, indeed. Most
mornings, I dropped into Twitter before I visited the bathroom. Did I turn off
my phone at night? Are you kidding? I don’t think I have turned off my phone
for a good year at least. It stays on 24/7, and remains in my vicinity day and
night (it has its own little sweet spot on my nightstand, within easy reach,
when I go to bed).
As I read on, getting
increasingly concerned, I decided then and there that it was time to conduct a
digital detox of sorts. I needed to wean myself off my addiction to the
Internet before I got my brain rewired completely (and developed attention
deficit disorder in the bargain).
So, over the last week or
so, I have been taking baby steps on my way to a digital detox. And here’s what
you need to do, for starters, if you would like to join me.
—Turn off
notifications:
This has made an enormous
difference to how I use my phone. Earlier, the ‘pings’ that would announce
the arrival of an e-mail or message, an Instagram like or a Twitter mention
would distract me countless times during the day. And no matter how hard I
tried to resist this siren call when I was working, it was hard not to click on
to the phone to see just what was happening in the virtual world. After all, I
told myself, it could be something important. (Spoiler alert: it hardly ever
was.) But once I turned off the notifications and let the sound of silence fill
its space, I found that I could concentrate much better on my actual work,
without breaking off to check my social media feeds. —
Turn Wi-Fi off on
my laptop:
Once the Internet is not accessible
on your computer, the incentive to take a ‘break’ to surf through news
or gossip websites, or even play a game of online Scrabble or Sudoku drops
considerably. Speaking for myself, I had a tendency to conduct ‘research’
alongside writing my next book. But before you could say ‘Google’, I had fallen
down the rabbit hole of the Net, navigating from one site to another to pursue
topics that had no real relevance to what I was working on. Well, that’s all in
the past now. Now, I’m all work on the laptop and all play when I’m on my
tablet. And that’s working out pretty well for me. Try it. —
Keep your phone
out of the bedroom:
This is essential if you want to
wind down and get a good night’s sleep. The blue light emitted by your phone
screen inhibits melatonin production and, thus, prevents you from falling asleep.
So, if you insist on scrolling through Facebook or
Twitter in bed, well
then, you are going to stay awake a while longer. The only way you can get your
quota of eight hours sleep is if you stop looking at your phone at least a
couple of hours before you retire to bed. And if you have your phone within
easy reach, the temptation to take just a little look-see will be hard to
resist. Much better to leave it in the living room before you head for the
bedroom. If you need to read something before you nod off, reach for a book
instead.
—Assign time limits to your social media usage:
The best way to do this is to get
your social media apps off your phone. If you can’t access your feeds on your
phone at a moment’s notice you will, perforce, check into Instagram and Facebook less
often. But if that seems like a step too far, well then, you will just have to
exert some discipline. Ease yourself out of your habit gently. Allow yourself
to check in at hourly intervals at first. Then take a couple of hours in
between logging in. And then, when you have weaned yourself off that constant
dopamine fix that instant approbation gives, just click on every morning and
evening – just enough to keep in touch, and just enough to avoid being sucked
in again. —
Carve out a
period during the day when you set your phone aside so that you can just be in
the moment:
Leave it at home when you go for a
walk. Switch it off as you have lunch with your mother. Don’t take it into the
kitchen when you are cooking dinner. Place it facedown when you have breakfast
with the children. Prioritise your real life over the virtual one. Trust me,
you won’t regret it.
·
Seema Goswami
HTBR7OCT18
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