Digital Detox for Mindful Screening
If you’re anything like me, seeing the word ‘detox’ causes you to flinch a bit. Because, it’s so often associated with the trend of the week diet. Or a questionable ‘healthy benefit’. To get started talking about Digital Detox for Mindful Screening, first we need to talk about what a digital detox is.
So what’s a digital detox? According to the Oxford English dictionary:
A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.
‘break free of your devices and go on a digital detox’
That’s pretty strait forward. Taking a break from digital devices. There are a lot of good reasons to take that break, and a growing body of evidence to support it.
When I first heard about the term digital detoxes, my first thought was ‘but what next’? I thought about it the way I would a food based ‘detox’. I know that refraining from consumption of a particular food or foods is only part of the plan. What happens after the detox is just as important as the detox itself.
Mindful Screening
That’s where the term mindful screening comes into the program. The propose of the initial phase of the detox might be to take time off from digital devices. That might be an hour, a day, or a month.
But the intention of the detox is not to remain off digital devices for ever. Well, it might be. But for most of us that is not a reality of the world we live in.
And as a parent, I don’t only have myself to think about. My children watch me, they see me using my digital devices. There are some who advocate that children should never see their parents distracted by digital devices. That if they don’t have that early influence, they will develop a health relationship with tech on their own. Well, I find that theory to be a bit naive.
Being mindful of our habits around screen is a perfect teaching opportunity. A way to teach our children the habits that will equip them to have a healthy relationship with technology.
Simply denying it exists because we don’t like the potential outcomes is at best avoidance. At worst, we are leaving our children completely unprepared for the world they are going to inherent.
This might all seem a bit dramatic. After all, it’s just a smartphone. A tablet. The smart TV. is it all that bad?
This is something that we are just starting to understand, and there is a long way to go with the research. But remember that the use of digital devices is brand spanking new in the timeline of human history. We don’t really know what the long term outcome will be.
Why a change is needed
Forging into a future unknown is daunting. Trying to educate our children how to navigate that world that we can’t yet see? Well that’s downright terrifying. So what can we do?
We live in a reactive world. One where emotional regulation is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to learn. In no small part due to the distractions of digital devices.
As a society, we are losing out ability to be alone. By that I don’t mean isolated. I mean alone with our own thoughts, without distractions, long enough to focus and complete a project.
Our brains work best when they are given room to think. As well as room to be board. Being overloaded with an endless stream of information is doing exactly the opposite effect it’s intended to. It’s actually making us stupider.
Are we addicted?
If the drop in intelligence, with the loss of deep focus, is not enough, here’s another thought. Are we addicted? To our digital devices?
Cal Newport, the author of Digital Minimalism, say this:
addiction is a condition in which a person engages in use of a a substance or behaviour for which the rewarding effect provides a compelling incentive to do repeatedly pursue the behaviour despite detrimental consequences”
We know being on our phones at night impacts our sleep.
Yet we do it anyway.
We know that scrolling social media can make us feel worse about ourselves and our own lives.
Yet we do it anyway.
We know screen time is bad for young growing minds.
Yet we give it to them anyway – because we’re using them ourselves. It’s a bit hard to convince a child something is bad for them, if all they see is us glued to our phones.
What is being mindful of screening?
Just like how we eat, how we consume information on digital devices is best done mindfully. And with intention. Making a choice of what and how it’s used. For lack of a better way to say it, a digital diet.
Also like nutrition, being intentional yields much greater outcomes then being reactive. Both when if comes to our relationship with food and technology. We do not need to be restrictive to have a healthy diet. But we do need to be intentional. It’s the same with digital devices. Can we still use them? Yes of course we can. But being intentional about that usage is what can help keep it in a health range.
What we all need is a plan. A detox might be part of that plan, but it can’t be the end of the plan. For some more information, and a few tips to get started, you can download my guide to Digital Detox for Mindful Screening.
This guide is the handout for my workshop, Digital Detox for Mindful Screening. But you can get the guide here for free.
For some people, a bit of info and a plan to get started is enough. But if you would like a bit more guidance, consider my free 50-minute program, The Wellbeing Roadmap.
