“Digital Detox”: Living the Modern World
As we enter the post pandemic era, life has been relying even more on digital features with the technical advantage that is also developing rapidly. ‘Me time’, social life, work, everything has been widely spent on screen – either your smartphone, laptop, tablet or television.
Life update? Just watch my WhatsApp status.
What kind of music I’m listening to recently? Have a look at my Spotify receipt on my Instagram story!
Emergency meeting? Let’s hop on to the office Zoom meeting.
In 2019, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia were stated as the most active social media users since the populations are large and young in age. This huge community of social media users shows that gadget usage is also escalating. Therefore, the term ‘digital detox’ which is defined as period of time during which a person refrains (timeouts) from using their electronic devices (Theda Radtke et al., 2020) exists – considering that for intervention in increasing well-being.
So let’s start detoxing ourselves from digital devices to maintain a good well-being!
Here’s how you can start doing digital detox :
Remove distractions.
Remove the push notifications from applications you installed in your smartphone that could disturb you. You can use the iOS Do Not Disturb mode, Android Digital Well-Being (ActionDash, Digital Balance, Quality Time) or any other similar app.
Set limits :
Realistically speaking, these days, we need to stay connected for work, school or any other obligations. Try to set your limit from using devices when you can, for instance :
Lunch time : use it to be more mindful and aware of your surroundings
Spending time with friends or family : socialize with your loved ones
Before sleep : safe your time from scrolling social media and increase your sleep quality
Other than that, you can use the time for some meditation or journaling. There’s a lot of benefits of practicing digital detox in your everyday life including preventing you from having FOMO (fear of missing out) while detaching yourself from gadgets.
Reference
Radtke, T., Apel, T., Schenkel, K., Keller, J., & von Lindern, E. (2021). Digital detox: An effective solution in the smartphone era? A systematic literature review. Mobile Media & Communication, 10(2), 190–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579211028647
Schmuck, D. (2020). Does Digital Detox Work? Exploring the Role of Digital Detox Applications for Problematic Smartphone Use and Well-Being of Young Adults Using Multigroup Analysis. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(8). https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0578
Deloitte : “The Next Wave’ Emerging digital life in South and Southeast Asia, 2020. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/deloitte-cn-tmt-inclusion-en-200924.pdf
Written by Hanis Hadi, PartnerInc International Intern from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
