*ping*

a familiar sound our phone makes once every few minutes. maybe there’s a new sale notification or a friend’s Instagram story update that leaves us comparing our life to theirs. it’s exhausting and incredibly self-harming. studies suggest that getting our social media and digital devices in control is an important element in keeping your anxiety and emotional distress at bay.

experts say that excessive use of digital devices can cause a decrease in attention span, emotional resilience, and reasoning skills. it also disturbs our sleep cycle. it can also lead to self-isolation, low self-esteem, and shallow connections online.

here are a few ways you can manage your digital consumption and create a system to detox yourself from all the online negativity:

turn off all notifications

the pings every minute or so are a distraction that drags you into clicking on an app or a video or a reel and take away hours of your time; endlessly scrolling without a purpose.

limit the times you check your phone

easier said than done right? I mean if we could really resist the temptation of checking our phones, wouldn’t we have already done that? but that is why commitments are hard. So, commit to checking your phone only once or twice an hour, and don’t let your phone interrupt you if you are doing something important.

tell your friends to wait

friends and acquaintances can be demanding when it comes to replying to texts. we know many occasions when the last seen feature has led to “confrontations”. so, tell your friends that you are taking some time off so that they do not expect any instant replies from you. on the weekends, try to minimise any communication with your co-workers and talk about work.

cut down on time on your phone before bedtime

a lot of people call it “revenge bedtime procrastination”, you know that time that you stay up in bed till late at night scrolling away because you did not get any time for yourself. but experts suggest that a lot of the solution lies is by getting more sleep. so switch off your phone, maybe pick up a book to calm your mind, and go to sleep.

in the end, all you can do is try to reduce your hours on phone and try to find ways to connect with more people and do more things like painting and dancing. something that makes you feel alive instead of just endlessly scrolling away and viewing the manufactured moments of people you don’t even know.

have an amazing day! take care and live aastey!