Digital Detox, Digital Diet - Part I
Last Sunday, I decided to go on a 24-hour digital detox: no surfing, no social media, no messaging, no Netflix.... You get the picture. The day was spent meditating (the whole thing started with me planning a half-day of meditation), reading (my Kindle was allowed, but hard copy books were used too) and walking my dog.
The next day, I had multiple light-bulb moments. Incredibly clear, embodied certainty about where I needed to focus my attention and efforts and what path was right for me.
So, I figured, if one day of cutting digital usage in my life resulted in these breakthroughs, what would additional days do?
I decided to put myself on a severely restricted digital diet: no online media, no surfing, no social media. Direct messages or emails and internet use for work or courses were the only digital technology allowed.
Full Disclaimer: I cracked briefly for one episode of The West Wing Weekly podcast and got side tracked for an hour or two when I had to buy boots and order some technology necessities for my parents.
THE STRUGGLES:
Monday and Tuesday dinner times were tough. I normally eat accompanied by a podcast or Netflix playing so sitting and eating in silence (no reading of any type allowed) was incredibly challenging the first couple nights.
FOMO: I totally got nervous about what I would miss out on, particularly with the IG stories that only stick around for 24 hours.
People pleasing and fear of rejection: I wondered if people would be offended that I wasn’t ‘liking’ or responding to their posts
THE TAKEAWAYS:
If you can sit through the discomfort of the quiet and the unfamiliar, it gets better: by Thursday, I gave myself permission to put on a little Netflix with dinner - I figured I’d earned it by this point. The moment I hit play, I dove for the pause button and turned the whole thing off. I didn’t want the noise any longer. I’m still eating in silence as of this post.
Yes, I missed out on posts and stories and news feed items, but I miss out on plenty of stuff and life still moves along. Not everyone I know is on social media, so I “miss out” on a lot of what’s going on in their lives too.
I enjoy the quiet. I need the quiet.
Here’s the thing: I’m not a luddite. I don’t think technology or social media is the devil. Besides the obvious advances in and opportunities for research, collaboration and information sharing, technology and social media also provide a means of communicating across wide geographical expanses, a sharing of passions and access to education and resources among many other services. For some, it’s a lifeline, a singular opportunity for connection, acceptance and belonging that isn’t available to them elsewhere and/or in-person. But I’m also well aware of its potential for addiction and misuse and the way in which it exaggerates and exacerbates our fears and insecurities. It stealthily erodes our downtime, reducing if not eliminating, those periods of quiet, integration, contemplation and imagination that our brains absolutely require for innovation and creativity.
Technology and social media are here to stay and I don’t want them to disappear. But I need to reset my relationship with technology. It’s beginning to feel like a codependent relationship when they should be tools at my disposal. For me, at this moment, social media and much of the internet prevent me from seeing and thinking clearly; I can’t find my voice. This isn’t something that I think everyone else “should” do; this isn’t even something I think anyone else should do. This is just something I need to do.
So, for the rest of November, I’m continuing my Severely Restricted Digital Diet:
Prohibited: Social media, surfing, online visual media (e.g. Netflix, YouTube)
Restricted: Podcasts, audiobooks
Allowed: Direct messages (e.g. whatsapp, email, texts), internet use for work or courses, apps for purely functional tasks (e.g. weather, maps)
See you on the other side! DMs only until December 1st.