After thigh gaps and lip fillers there might
actually be a positive hype going around. The Digital Detox, it’s been a long
time coming. With social media taking over every aspect of our lives, social boundaries
are being blurred left right and center. Many people are getting overwhelmed
and are cutting down on the time they spend on the internet.
The main
reasons I want to reduce the presence of media in my life is time,
concentration and sleep. I don’t know how much time you spend online, but I’m a
permanent resident of Town Internet. I wake up and the first thing I do is check
my phone to have a wonder around all my social media platforms. During breakfast
I either watch YouTube videos or I continue to spend time on social media,
refreshing the feeds as if there is to appear something life changing any
second. This pretty much continuous until my phone dies somewhere around nine o’clock
in the evening and I rush to get my charger. The only time I really unplug is
when I’m in class. This is when I put my phone away in my bag and switch my
laptop to flight mode. It seems harder when I am alone though, doing homework I’m
not particularly interested in or when I have time on my hands I used to fill
with reading books or visiting friends. Why leave the house when you have the
whole world at your fingertips? But I do miss it though, walking the streets
without music bursting through little headphones that block out any outside
noise on my way to a friend’s house. So, to lessen the digital grip on my life, I want to try to live by these rules:
1. Don’t take the laptop with you to
bed. Buzzfeed will still be there in the morning.
2. No wearing headphones in public
places unless you have to in order to concentrate on studying or work.
3. No laptop or phone whilst working
for school, unless needed.
4. Do take the phone with you to bed,
but put the damn thing down on time! Jeez, some self-control please!
I don’t think I will pull the plug on my social
media, like some other have done, any time soon. I am having way too much fun building
my blog and other social media outlets. It has also become nearly impossible to
live completely outside of the social media world. And to be honest, I wouldn’t
want to do that. We have access to all these amazing platforms that enable us
to have discussions with anyone all over the world. We get to understand each
other’s cultures and ways of thinking by connecting with each other through a
small plastic devise we can fit in our back pocket. How crazy is that? I wouldn’t
want to miss out on any of that. Haha…FOMO! That, however, doesn’t mean some
healthy boundaries aren’t welcome.
This post was inspired by Estee Lalonde’s video Digital Detox. Do check it out if you have the time.
How much time do you spend online? Do you take regular
breaks? What do you do when you have them? Let me know down below!
