How to Have a Healthy Relationship With Tech during Quarantine

Could you spend a weekend without your phone? Few people could, because our time on our phones has been increasing significantly every year since the smart phone was invented in 2007.

Technology has made our lives better in many ways, but in the same breath it has taken a toll on our relationships, our mental well-being, and our time especially during Quarantine when it seems like all of our screen time has continued to skyrocket.

Typically, we will not make changes that could benefit our lives until we realize the negative impact our bad habits have on us. Now is the perfect time to be honest with how you are using your phone, as well as how frequently you are using it making sure we are being mindful in our technology usage.

Are you ready to take an honest assessment of your tech habits so you can instead spend time you might have wasted mindlessly scrolling online to investing in authentic relationships?

First, you have to understand you’re not alone.

Here are some crazy statistics on just how invasive these small devices have been on our lives.

• The average internet user spends 2.25 hours a day on social media platforms.
• We check phones around 150 times a day, and few of us can’t go longer than 10 minutes without checking our phones, whether we’ve received a notification or not.
• American adults spend more than 10-hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media, according to a new study by market-research group Nielsen.
• Only half of us can admit to making a meaningful connection with a real life person on any given day.
• Studies show most people actually spend double-the-time on technology then what they think they do.
• Tech addiction is NOT an accident, there are thousands of programmers whose sole purpose is to keep us addicted.

That last point listed was a shock to me when I first found this out. Our technology addiction is being fed and reinforced by app programmers and social media engineers.

It’s no wonder we’re spending so much time on our devices.

The more time we spend online, the more money they make, and our attention is the product being sold.

On top of that, this next generation is growing up embracing an unhealthy relationship with technology that has been ingrained in them since childhood — and unfortunately they view it as perfectly normal.

However, our over-dependence on technology is neither healthy nor normal and it is time for Tech-Life Balance.

The people I speak with during our A-GAP technology-free experiences come to our events with a desire to break away from their cell phone co-dependence. But usually, it’s only after they discover the value of re-connecting with others, with nature, and, ultimately, with themselves that they understand how enslaved by their devices they’d become.

When they leave our digital detox experiences, they are committed to establishing a balanced, healthier relationship with technology in their lives leading to digital wellbeing. We equip them with practical ways to use technology as a tool, rather than as a replacement for life’s meaningful connections that they’ve unintentionally been sacrificing.

The question now is, what steps can you take to forge a healthier relationship with tech?

The first step is to candidly assess your relationship with your devices. For a week, monitor how many times you reach for your phone and engage with its screen. I’m sure it has been more with the current COVID-19 crisis at hand.

There are apps for checking your screen time, but it’s more effective when you monitor your usage manually, in a journal, because you can see your progress and growth over time. You’ll probably be shocked by what you find!

Now that you have a baseline, work on ways to cut down on your screen time. This can be done any number of ways, but here are a few tips.

• Bring nature back into your life, by taking walks, hikes or simply finding a quiet spot to spend a few moments in contemplation. I know this might be limited with certain restrictions but if you can get out and about nature does wonders for our wellbeing.
• Consider joining a group of like-minded people over a Zoom Call, even if it is through a screen this is a wonderful example of using technology as a tool to connect with people rather than a barrier to intimate relationships.

We are all learning a new normal with this crisis that is going on in the world but hopefully we can learn to implement healthy technology habits that we can carry into our lives after all this is over.

I also think we have been given a gift to be much more appreciative of physical relationships and other things we took for granted before all of this happened.

Amidst everything, gratitude will get our eyes off ourselves and help us realize technology should be a way to genuinely connect with others and work effectively through digital wellbeing.

Remember, it’s never too late to implement healthy tech habits — and the best way to share it with others is by setting the example yourself.

Here’s to TECH-FREE FREEDOM!

Originally published at https://thriveglobal.com.