Tech Detox Manifesto

I am personally challenged by the fear of missing out (FOMO), habit, and not necessarily a fear but an aversion to silence. Like many other people, when I get a notification on my phone, I have to check it, even if I know what it might be or if it could be irrelevant. I think I do this because I have a fear of missing out on something good or fun. I definitely get a rush of dopamine when I hear the notification sounds from my phone. I know that I also do things out of habit. It’s hard to fight the instinct to check a notification and investigate it. With how busy I am with school it has been tough to keep up with my social life, so it makes it even harder to ignore a text message or social media alert. I also know that if my family texts me I want to text them back ASAP because they only send me important things. Lastly, I have a hard time just sitting still and doing something. Even if I am doing my hobbies, I want to watch tv or listen to music while I’m doing them to avoid the silence.

But this is a lot better than I used to be. I used to have severe issues with social media where I would be anxious and depressed. I would feel these strong emotions tied to social media, whether it was things going well or going poorly. I got so frustrated with having my emotions being pulled in every which direction that I decided to sever my relations with social media. It was an unintentional digital detox. I deleted my accounts and deleted the apps on my phone without telling anyone what was going on. I wish I would have kept some evidence because the posts that I had were tied to positive memories. I wish I would have known more about this balance that is talked about in the articles that we read about.

I enjoyed reading about the concept of 24/6 or a “Technology Shabbat.” This is something that I could see myself doing. It might be difficult the first couple of times but I am willing to give it a shot. Having a full day of no technology would be different from the way that I am currently living. From the way that I am woken up to the way that I fall asleep is dependent on tech. I would also like to do a social media detox as described by the Martínez article. I would also like to try a string of days without technology to see if I could do it. Even when I went camping with no cell signal I used a phone, so I want to really challenge myself. Above all I want to see this out with compassion. I know this will be difficult for me but I want to try, even if I fail a few times.

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