Peace of Mind in a Digital World
If you ever felt stressed out by your smartphone, you’re not the only one. A growing number of people in today’s society is experiencing the downsides of the tools that we thought would shape our future to be bright: the internet, smartphones, and social media. Lots of us feel pressured, stressed out, and lack the face-to-face interaction. Clearly there is something unhealthy in the way we use these technologies that’s causing these mental health issues. So how did we get here, and more importantly, where do we go from here?
In a time where everyone is always online, it can be hard not to get absorbed in the digital world of infinite entertainment. After all, it’s only one click away. But sometimes you just want to live in the moment and not get bothered by all those messages waiting there for you. You just want to have some peace for a bit, but somehow everyone seems to expect that you are always online. There is this continuous stream of notifications that you feel the need to respond to. As it turns out, a lot of people are experiencing this pressure. Ever since the rise of social media, there are so many users mind-numbingly scrolling through their feeds, while having the illusion that everyone’s life is interesting but their own. This only adds to the feelings of stress. No one ever seems to be alone with their thoughts anymore, just because scrolling without thinking feels so comfortable.
Meanwhile, more and more people are recognising these issues themselves. It even seems that the generation that grew up with social media is the one that is most aware of this problem. They are actually thinking about what they can do to decrease their time spent online. This desire to refrain from this constant connectivity is called pushback. Ever since the technology has started to wear people out so much, this phenomenon of reducing your online communication has been an increasing trend. This is no wonder if you realise an average person checks their phone about two hundred times per day, spending about two hours each day on social media. Just think about all the things you could do instead with that time.
One of the resorts that people have turned to is to undergo a so-called detox. This means that they would refrain from using certain things like social media or their smartphone for a specific period of time. There are all kinds of variations on a detox like this, some more intense than others. They can vary in the total time period, the time of usage you allow yourself per day, or which specific technologies you avoid. The term detox itself is strongly related to its usage in the medical world, because the behaviour many people show with their smartphone is similar to what has been seen in other cases of addiction, such as with drugs.
The results of trying a detox in the case of technology have been mixed. You might have heard success stories about people who tried it and felt completely cleansed afterwards, having all kinds of new views on life. However, there are also enough stories that prove the opposite, that people feel it’s impossible to live without the technology. These cases demonstrate very well just how integrated technology has become in our everyday life.
Most of us would be very nervous about giving up their smartphone or social media like that. There is a rational fear of missing out, but it doesn’t stop there. We have become so dependent on constant communication that I dare say it would be nearly impossible for me to make plans with friends or discuss about a university project without direct messaging like WhatsApp. Those are just trivial everyday things which would suddenly get a lot more difficult if you decide to give up your smartphone, because even if you were to stop using it, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is going to change with you.
Therefore, we have to find a healthy balance for ourselves between complete isolation and being constantly online. Where exactly this balance lies may very well differ per person, making it difficult to provide a one-fits-all solution to the issues that so many of us experience. Some options could be to limit your social media usage, try deleting certain apps from your phone, or maybe even just to turn your phone on silent at specific times of day, such that you won’t be bothered by an incoming stream of notifications all the time. Ironically, there are enough online resources about the things you could try.
Ultimately, this pushback seems like the way to go with the increasing awareness of mental health issues caused by technology. While we cannot escape the digital world anymore, we have to find ways to deal with it in a healthy manner, such that we can enjoy the advantages of all these technological advancements without feeling the stress that commonly goes with it now. Because after all, innovation should be here to make our lives easier, not more stressful.
