Own Your Tech
6 ways to win the digital battle for your mind
Originally featured in the Monday State of Mind newsletter. Subscribe here
Social media and digital technology could be compared to many of society’s other great vices. Like booze, gambling or porn, a major part of the appeal is the short-cut they provide, to the pleasant feelings we usually only get when we put in a bit more work.
For example, that feeling of connection — that we’d previously earn through social interactions, dealing with rejection and understanding other people; but which we now aim to get by winning “friends”, “likes” and “followers”.
When it happens, we still get a little chemical boost in our brains, so we keep going back for more. But those quick hits aren’t quite the same as the universe of physiological reactions we get from, say, noticing a smile, embracing in a hug or sharing a belly laugh.
So even though our minds think we’re getting the same, there may still be a bit of a void in how we feel overall. This is just one of a number of effects that social media and the digital world is argued to have on how we feel; like the anxiety that comes with comparing ourselves to other people or the effects that blue light can have on sleep.
Do you own the tech, or does the tech own you?
I love technology, just like I love booze, gambling and porn. And like any vice, it’s only a problem when it’s a problem — i.e, if it consumes you. But unlike most other vices, we were never given guidelines about being aware of our limits.
To add to the challenge, every app on our phones has been designed to make them difficult to avoid. The companies behind the apps make more money, the more we engage. So they employ the world’s smartest people, who understand our minds better than we do, to apply lots of clever tricks to keep us coming back.
Between these apps is a constant battle, happening in the pockets and handbags of every one of us, where the victor is rewarded with our attention, focus and emotions. So it’s just worth being aware of this — understanding where the triggers are, which are designed to pull us in, and how to step in before our addiction to it does.
Taking back control
As studies have shown, quitting tech or social media altogether may not help, as our social lives are now pretty firmly built around them. But at minimum, limiting our time on it and creating a separation with technology puts us back in control.
Here are a few very simple tips as to how we might do that:
1. Turn off phone notifications
To keep us coming back for more, our apps will bombard us with notification alerts, even if they have hardly any relevance or benefit to us at all.
Simply switching off notifications and removing the alert to go back into our phones, creates a separation that puts us in control. You can do this either within the app itself, or within your phone device settings.
2. Make apps more difficult to access
When we’re bumbling around on auto-pilot, it can become our default to just start scrolling. Making those particular apps difficult to access, gives our minds more time to think about whether it’s the best thing for us to do right now, or (probably) not.
Simply taking the most procrastinating apps off of your homescreen can be enough time to break the pattern of unlocking your phone and going straight into scroll mode.
3. Go off-line at night
The later we use our phones at night, the more difficult it is for our brains to relax, wind down and switch off. Using phones before sleep keeps us stimulated, while even just having our phones by our sides leaves the opportunity for distractions in breaking our sleep, affecting how we feel the following day.
At minimum, switching to flight mode gives us a bit of quiet brain time. Even better, leaving it to charge in a separate room and replacing it with an alarm clock! So we can wake up knowing that we’re in control of when the next distraction comes.
4. Have digital-free periods
Taking periods of the day where you switch your phone or email off, or onto flight mode, allows for concentration without distractions; whether that’s for work, conversation, or wherever it is your attention would be better focused.
Equally, having certain times for particular apps or websites — like Instagram or Snapchat in the evening only — provides you with more control over your consumption of digital tech and how you consume it.
5. Use blocker apps
There are plenty of apps out there which help create that separation and block out the digital temptation. Many are similar, but might have slightly different uses.
For example, you might want to block specific apps while still having access to others (eg for researching), using apps like Freedom (for Windows, IOS, Mac) or Stay Focused (for Android)
Focus Lock lets you set timeframes to lock yourself offline, until the time you dictate to go back on (for Android)
Time Out will give you a gentle reminder to take a break from the digial vortex, with apps like (for Mac)
Siempo takes your most procrastinating apps away from your homescreen and gives you updates as and when you’ve been using them too much (Android)
Forest gives you gentle reminders of when you’ve been using an app too much (Android)
Flipd allows you to monitor and track your digital use with your friends — because teamwork makes the dreamwork (Android, IOS)
There are plenty out there, but installing them once again gives you a little more power in how you deal with your tech.
6. Don’t take your phone into places you don’t need it
Or, switch if off/onto flight mode. If you’re scrolling through your phone at the gym, you’re not really working out. If you’re checking your phone every 5 minutes over lunch with your friend, you’re a bad friend. Or at least a bad lunch date. Once again, switching off when we don’t need it, puts us back in control.
Taking control of our tech starts with us
As is my general feeling on most of the mental health problems we face in society - any anxiety or depression we might feel, from our addiction to technology, is there because the purpose behind it is designed to make it that way. If the business model encourages the companies behind the tech to make it as addictive as possible, then of course, that’s what they’ll do.
Therefore, for real change, I believe we need to look at regulation into what is acceptable and what isn’t. Which is a whole other conversation (stay tuned).
But like with any major global challenge, the first change starts with ourselves. So in the meantime, let’s take charge of our own digital habits, then see where we can go from there.
Originally featured in the Monday State of Mind newsletter — covering what business & tech are doing for mental health in society…and what we can do for our own. Subscribe and see more here
