How is digital technology impacting your health?

By staff

Do you need a digital detox?

  1. Do you stare at your phone waiting for a message, call or likes?
  2. Do you repeatedly open the same social app scrolling through the same news feed and keeping refreshing it?
  3. Do you have texting or Instagram thumb?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may need to set some rules in your daily life to have a break from touching your phone or just all together need a detox from any form of tech equipment.

There is constant debate that too much digital use can cause you to become anti-social, less time efficient and can damage your health from less physical activity and impact your mental health. It does depend how you use your smartphone or electronics, and if it’s for work or personal use.

Below are some ideas that you could try, that may help remove the urge to check your screen.

  1. Meal time

70% of people in Australia admit to using their phone during mealtimes. Making a rule that at any meal, no phones at the table or around. Enjoying a meal from start to finish with family or friends without the interruption or need to look down and check your screen.

  1. An hour a day

Make a rule that an hour a day you do not use any form of technology and give that hour back to you. Do something for yourself, whether it be a nap, reading a book or playing with your children. Putting time back into your day to either socialize face to face or give the hour to me time.

  1. Grayscale

You can every so often turn your phone to gray scale and turn down the colour on your screen. This can help make it less appealing to look at your phone so often.

  1. Find a Detox Buddy

Things are always easier when you team up. By doing this you can discuss different ways to support each other or ways you have reduced your screen time.

  1. Screen time features

Most new phones now have a feature which locks you out of certain app’s or has a lock out timer to help reduce app usage.  Both android and iPhone has this feature and you just have to set it up and it will start locking you out for a period of time for certain apps. This feature was introduced to help people to reduce the need for consistent social media check ins.

  1. Going cold turkey

If you really want to you can just delete all the app’s or social media that you find pulling you away from work or real social life interactions. A lot of people do tend to go this way but just depends on much you relied on checking updates of what’s going on in the world and if you can stick to a goal.

In this day and age, we are surrounded by computers and smartphones that can pretty much remove any need to have a face to face conversation. Technology is a beautiful thing and has allowed our lives to be more accessible and allows us to learn new information at a much faster pace. But remembering to stop every now and then and put your phone down and give yourself a break from the screen life.