Could a Digital Detox Save Your Sanity?

These days, we seem to be constantly plugged-in. Always at our laptop, our iPhone, and our iPad, seeing what new news the world sends. From the time we wake to the time we go to bed, even into the night, we monitor our email, our Twitter feed, our Facebook wall and our Pinterest boards. All day, we watch our screens, on tenterhooks, waiting for the reply to that email, to be liked, to be shared.

Most of this technology is very new, and there's no way to know how it might affect us long-term. However, some worrying research suggests that unalloyed time staring at our screens may be storing up problems for the future.

What kind of problems?

Recent studies have found that excessive screen-time, and especially excessive use of social media, is making us into anti-social, narcissistic, unempathetic insomniac computer addicts.

No way!

It's true.

Let's begin with anti-social. A recent study of over 3000 participants under 30 found that 76% of females check social media at least 10 times while they're socialising with friends. 54% of males also check social media the same amount of times while out with friends. A survey by social network Flashgap asked 150,000 millennial users if they had missed part of a real-life conversation due to checking their social media. 87% admitted they had.

READ Narcissistic Personality Disorder vs Antisocial Personality Disorder: What's The Difference?

Now let's look at narcissism. One study looked at 486 college students. They were given a personality test that measured narcissism, and were asked about their social media use. A follow up study tested 93 adults with an average age of 35. Both studies found narcissists post differently on social media, in order to boost others' opinion of them. However, it was unclear if narcissists are more drawn to social media or if social media creates narcissists.

READ How To Recognize People With Narcissistic Personality Disorder

It may be harder to convince you to banish your iPhone from the bedroom (according to a Facebook commissioned study, 57% of us use them as alarm-clocks), but, if you suffer insomnia, it may be worth it. Neuroscientist Orfeu M. Buxton, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, believes the blue light of the iPhone in the bedroom may set off "threat vigilance", anxiety which keeps us awake. He says:

“This means that you’re never off, you’re always watchful, which is a hallmark to insomnia."

Finally, some neuroscientists have found that excessive use of phones in young children can leave children as young as five unable to read emotions in a human face, causing lack of empathy. This could be a serious problem for the future, as research suggests that as many as 68% of children aged three to 17 own a smartphone, using them for twenty-one hours and 48 minutes every single week.

Adults are just as bad. 59% of adults feel "hooked" to their devices, with 30% feel their friendships suffer due to the amount of time they spend online.

READ Don't Ruin Your Sleep - Stop Staring At A Screen Before Bedtime

So are you saying screens are bad for us?

Screens can be helpful. The internet can find information that would have required a very knowledgeable and friendly librarian twenty years ago. Letting a child use a screen can give a parent five minutes of free time, and give the child time to practice vital hand-eye coordination skills. However Janine M. Cooper, research fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute stressed moderation, saying:

“Perhaps the best advice for parents is to monitor the content of the apps their kids access and tell them from a young age that they’re for ‘sometimes use’, just like sweets and lollies.”

That might be a good rule for everyone.

Benefits of a Digital Detox

A what?

A digital detox. A few days or a week without any gadgets at all: no iPhone, no internet, no laptop. Many woodlands are now offering family digital detoxes for those who think they might "fall off the wagon" at home.

The Moroccan Experiment

In 2015, Kate Unsworth handpicked 35 CEOs and entrepreneurs and took them on a four-day digital detox in the Moroccan desert, along with five neuroscientists, to observe what happened. Here's what they noticed:

Better Friendships

After three days with their iPhones surgically amputated, people started to walk straighter. This gave them a more positive energy and a friendlier outlook when they entered a room. Without their iPhones there, constantly distracting them with pinging instant messages, they made more eye-contact with the other participants, had more focused conversations and so started to form closer, better friendships.

Better conversation

Google is a very useful tool. But it has killed trivia games, where one person has a question and so more people are pulled in leading to lively talk and inside jokes as everyone tries to find the answer. Now, if we want an answer, we solitarily Google it. Without their portable search device, participants started to have bonding conversations.

As Unsworth says:

"These are the conversations that really form bonds between people...You gain insight into the way someone's mind works, and it is not typically a conversation anyone has had before, so it is engaging and memorable."

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Better sleep

Without those blue screens in their rooms, keeping them fizzing like electrical wires all night long, the participants started getting better-quality sleep, feeling more rested during the day.

Improved Memory

After only a few days, the participants were able to remember obscure details of the other participants' lives. The five neuroscientists believed this was because, by being more present in conversation, they were able to store and access new information more easily. When distracted by technology, our brains ignore details that appear insignificant, like your new acquaintance's mother's name. However, these details do matter. They show other people that we care and help us bond.

READ How to Improve Memory: 10 Simple Tips

Permanent Change

One surprising thing the neuroscientists found was how a few days away from the screen and present in their own lives helped people realise what was important. Some decided to make big changes in their lives, in relationships, or careers. Freeing people from distractions didn't only help people realise what mattered, it also helped them feel they had the ability to make long-term change.

Other Benefits of Digital Detox

These changes weren't specifically noticed in Morocco, but have been found in people doing a digital detox:

• More peacefulness: Without constant distractions, you can relax, take deeper breaths. You're not constantly jumping to check the next "thing". You can be in the moment.
• Not always on call: Think about it, if the second anyone sends you a message, you reply (even at midnight on Sunday), what does that teach them? That you're always on call, and available for evermore demands. A digital detox allows you to decide the days and times that it suits you to respond, enabling you to find a healthier work-life balance.
• It could increase your productivity: Some people swear by a regular digital detox as a way to boost their energy levels in time for Monday morning. Taking a total break could jump-start your ideas so you return refreshed and revitalised the following week.
• It could improve your health: We've all heard of conditions like "text neck" and "Blackberry thumb". Spending less time on the iPhone could improve these conditions.

READ Can Mindfulness Meditation Cause You Emotional Harm?

When you come back

Currently, the average adult in the UK spends 25 hours a week online (almost triple the 9 hours we spent online a decade ago). When you return from your detox, try to be mindful of how you use the internet. Try not spending hours Pinning pictures of cute kittens because they're there. Try not browsing celebrity Twitter feeds in which you have only a passing interest. Instead, try using your devices only as you really need them, and to have one day a week when you don't use them at all (except in a genuine emergency)

Considering how we can positively use devices, and being aware of their potential downfalls, may be better than having a long-term blanket "no device" policy.

Getting the Balance

While screens are helpful, it's important to get the balance right: getting your work done, and still finding time to take care of our real friends, and to enjoy hobbies.

And that's where a digital detox can come in. Because we all need time to breathe.