Digital Detox in 10 Steps

Digital Detoxification is a practice to limit the use of technology.  Digital Detox helps us to enhance the quality of our lives. It is a way to stop the constant urge to use social media. 

Do we really need Digital detox?

Our lives are filled with technology. According to a study we give about 2.5 hours daily on social media. But some take it too further than this.

Here is the list to check if you need a Digital Detox.

Do you:

  • Use social media late night instead of sleeping;
  • Get stressed, anxious, and irritated without social media;
  • Think about social media even after using cell phone;
  • Check likes, shares, comments constantly.

If yes, then you need Digital Detox.

Benefits of Digital Detox 

1. Keep your life balanced. 

According to Ayurveda a balanced mind, body, and life is key to all round health. 

2. Sleep benefits

The health of a person can be judged by his sleeping pattern. If you have irregular sleep and insomnia then your body might have some underlying problems. Using digital detox helps you sleep peacefully.

3. Time for Family and friends

Time spent with family and friends boost your Psychological health. Digital detox helps you to focus on your life. This gives you emotional wellbeing.

4. Embracing reality

The contemporary world is virtually oriented. People spend time getting perfect selfies, try to maintain a hectic online presence, and feel insecure about themselves. Same cycle again and again. 

Digital detox will give you inspiration, boost your creativity, and give you true values of life.

5. Look younger

A study shows that people who spend more time on screen age faster than others. Looking at the screen gives your skin wrinkles and lines. Digital detox helps you look fresh and young.

Check out this infographics for quick ways to detox:

How to Digital Detox

Here are 10 useful tips that you can do to Detox digitally:

1. Keep away from your cell phone for a minimum of 5 hours. You can increase as you like.

2. Keep away from distractions such as Netflix, gaming, other digital products.

3. Read a book during disconnection. Write a journal about how you feel during this time. You will be amazed that in a month your health has progressed.

4. Go out. Embrace nature. Do some activity that connects you to nature such as gardening, walking on beaches, swimming, or cycling in the morning. 

5. Play with your pets. This is the best time to bond with your pets.

6. Do volunteering. Give your hand to a person in need. Everything that goes around comes around.

7. Spend time with your family. 

8. Declutter your house.

9. Use cell phones ONLY when necessary. If you really need your cell phone, you may use it. Make sure you don’t exceed your time limit.

10. Practice your hobby and master it. Remove negative self with Digital Detox. 

Do these 10 simple Digital Detox techniques every week. You will be surprised with the productivity and efficiency you see in your life and work.

Here are 5 famous motivational quotes to inspire you while you Digitally Detox.

The body achieves what the mind believes.

Be patient with yourself. Nothing in nature blooms all year.

Your life only gets better when you do. Work on yourself and the rest will follow.

Nurturing yourself is not selfish—it’s essential to your survival and your well–being.

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

Social Media Detox

Social media is a part of our daily routine. We spend hours looking at our phones, chatting and exploring things. We scroll endlessly until we go off to sleep at night. Our lives have somewhat started revolving around Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. We are curious to know what is happening around the world, the latest trends and keep yourself updated about the latest memes. On average a person spends 1 hour 40 minutes per day browsing through social media. 

Although the world has come closer because of social media it has also increased restlessness in human beings. We start feeling anxious if we don’t check our social media handles every half hour at most. 

Talking about the content of social media. There is a variety of content available to people. From funny to informative, social media has everything. But the lifestyle portrayed on social media can make people feel insecure about themselves. And this results in anxiety and depression. Because we desire to achieve that lifestyle instantly. We beat ourselves up and feel hopeless if we are not able to do that.

Therefore, it is very important to take a break from social media once in a while. It is very essential to break the online walls we have created for ourselves and connect with reality.

How to do a proper Social Media Detox?

  1. Deactivate your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. It will help you from not checking your social media accounts again and again. 
  2. Uninstall your social media apps. If the apps are not on your phone you will not feel the urge to use them.
  3. Replace social media with some other activity. The time you spend on social media, use it to do something else. Like rediscovering a long lost hobby or honing your skills. 
  4. Talk to your family and friends. The people you have been avoiding for a long time, it’s time to meet them and enjoy the moment like you did before social media took over you. 
  5. Practice meditation and mindfulness. Meditation gives you a moment to reflect on yourself and clears your mind up. Mindfulness will increase your attention span and you will not get distracted easily.

Benefits of social media detox:

There are many reasons how social media detox benefits our day to day life. Some of the benefits of social media detox are:

  • It breaks the comparison cycle. We usually compare ourselves to what we see online. A social media detox will help us break that comparison cycle and focus on ourselves completely.
  • It is not essential to post everything from your life on social media. It is because social media is a dangerous place and many cybercrimes happen through the stuff we post online. It is essential to maintain your privacy, and thus, you should refrain from posting for some time. 
  • We have become so anxious that we feel like we are running a race all the time. And this race is between who has a better life as portrayed on social media. This has made us very competitive. A social media detox will help overcome this feeling of continuous competitiveness. 
  • It will also improve our mood. We will have more time for ourselves and we can focus on other thighs that make us happy in real life. 

According to scientists, a social media detox should last up to 3 months at least. But the dopamine levels can take longer to return to the normal level if someone is excessively addicted to social media.

We have forgotten what it’s like to sit with our family and friends and live in the moment. We are so engrossed in our online lives that we forget how important human essence is. Maybe it’s time we switch off our phones and make real-life connections instead of online connections alone.

Digital Detox

It all started a few months back, spending time on my phone was making me feel sick to my stomach. The strive to remain connected was making me feel annoyed, distracted and detached than ever.

Ever since data charges got cheaper and cheaper, using social media platforms one after the other became a part of our day. A routine to be exact.

It started off with taking over our lives when we felt bored at first, time does fly when you’re having fun. The transition to a time when we grew bored of it often. We’re certainly overdoing it.

However it never felt like an addiction to me, but on contemplation it became rather obvious that the struggle was inflicted by the content I consumed. The connectivity was paying a one hefty fee.

As faith would have it, one day it finally hit me. A solution to my problem lies in plain sight. Simple but genius. ‘Why do I have to do it, if it’s not healthy for me?’

A grave moment of epiphany.

The pandemic has fuelled people to spend long hours on their phones. The amount of content consumption should be a reason for concern.

We fancy all that our brothers from the West preach. We try to dress like them, eat like them and when they went onto to discovering social media platforms, we accepted it wholeheartedly.

Now as more and more such brothers preach the need for digital detoxes, this can’t be more true. They more or less do have an elder sibling effect on us.

The solution was ever apparent, for the taking to the ones that seek. We’re all stressed, tensed and severely pumped up than ever before. We all do find it hard to manage time too, and our attention span is just a little more than that of a goldfish.

Above all, the lack of sleep has also been found to have it’s toll on a few. The trends seemed to have circulated a few years back, around the time when the data charges were dragged to the ground.

The very essence of us passing time, being the very reason behind the matter of concern. They say, “the best days are the ones that doesn’t make you check your phone,” so why not do it? Make it a reality.

Social media has helped us out immensely, letting us to be connected to our loved ones around the world. Helping relationships to sustain itself over geographical and time barriers.

However we fell short to draw the boundaries. Boundaries are necessary. Knowing where to draw the line can absolutely do wonders.

The idea of a digital detox seemed a bit paradoxical to me at first. Cutting out the use of any device that is electric, seems far too barbaric, now. Our lives are so entangled that getting rid of it is not an option. However, Striking a balance seems apter by leaps and bounds.

I believe radical changes can cause more bane than boon. Whereas baby steps can take you places. Rather than completely throwing it out the window, imposing restrictions can be the first step.

Reducing the screen time to a smaller periods and then slowly stepping up a notch every now and then.

If it gets better and better, do more of it. After all life’s more about doing things that sets One’s soul on fire right.

Why should one bicker from doing more of what makes you feel better.

I believe in preaching what I believe in, A couple of months down the line, following the following has made me feel so much better lately. I’m connected but disconnected. Life got so much better.

Live and let live, right?