Knowing When You Need a Digital Detox

Knowing the signs that you need a digital detox and conducting them regularly can make a big difference in the quality of your life. A major component of protecting our peace and well-being is paying attention to the physical, behavioral, and psychological warning signs of digital overload. Physical symptoms are usually the earliest of warning signs with symptoms like eye strain, headaches, insomnia, joint pain, as well as back and neck pain. The second wave of symptoms to watch out for are behavioral. Some of the behavioral indicators are irritability, feeling like we need to be on alert, having difficulty concentrating, and checking devices so much it interrupts relaxation. Psychological indicators include feeling on edge and anxious, increased restlessness, decreased life satisfaction, depression, irritability, mood swings, and increased feelings of insecurity especially after using social media. If we pay attention to the warning signs, we can then start a digital detox that will reduce or alleviate digital fatigue. Because of the impact that digital fatigue can have, regular digital detox needs to be a part of self-care.

Once we realize that we are struggling with digital fatigue, we can then make a plan and develop a digital detox routine. Most people start too big and then find themselves struggling with digital withdrawal. Like other types of self-care, finding what works for you is a crucial component for a successful digital detox. A successful digital detox should improve your mental health rather than increasing anxiety. The key is starting where it makes it most sense for you. This is usually a series of trial and error. When developing our digital detox routine, we need to be patient with ourselves while we figure out how to create a balance of stepping away and still being connected enough to work and maintain our social connections. This necessitates complete honesty about our digital behavior and determining what supports our peace. For some, turning off non-essential notifications improves their life by leaps and bounds, and for others it leads to increased vigilance. Others may find that a more comfortable starting place is to have an hour before bed or the first hour of the morning to be unplugged. Once we have a small thing that we can do on a daily basis to prevent digital fatigue, we can use that as a springboard to start a digital detox.

A good starting place is cleaning up our apps and subscriptions, and deleting the ones that do not contribute to our happiness or make us feel good is an essential part of the process. Even apps that on the surface may appear to be healthy and can become a burden and increase our digital load, and the same can be said of subscription services. If we don’t use them, we don’t need them. This is especially true of apps designed to track or encourage behaviors. If the apps are not effective in increasing desirable behaviors, that leads to feeling bad about ourselves and negative self-talk. Once we have deleted non-essential apps, we can then work on time away from devices. Having spaces that are device free can help a lot with unplugging. Finding things to do that do not require us to be looking at a screen is essential. Dabbling in a variety of activities such as art, dancing, coloring, sewing, model building, or leatherworking are a few activities that can keep us busy and device free. Trying new things that spark creativity will make it easier to move away from digital stimulation. Finding activity based social groups in real life will also be a big help. When there is a balance between digital and analog activities, we tend to be happier and more present and keep digital fatigue at bay.