• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Digital Detox

Ecdysis

MyPTSD Pro
I want to try and go totally "offline" one day per week. Sunday seems like an easy/ fitting choice for me.

Being so online/ so digital/ constantly checking devices almost 24/7 takes a toll on our mental health - sometimes more obviously so, sometimes more subtly.

I've certainly noticed my attention span shrink crazily, ever since I bought my first smartphone. It's like my brain's unit of information has become the average length of an internet post/ social media message. This has led to me reading faaaaaaaar fewer books than I used to in younger years because of this shrunken attention span.

Anyone feel like joining me an doing some mini digital detoxes?

I'm thinking I'll spend each Sunday completely offline and then write here on Mondays and reflect on what I did that Sunday and what being offline was like, how it affected my brain, how it made my day unfold differently to if I'd been online...

The biggest hurdle I see for this project is my forgetfulness... Ever since menopause kicked in, my brain is an absolute sieve... Not only do I forget what weekday it is, but also what I planned to do on any given day... So it's a likely problem that I'll forget my Sundays-offline idea with stubborn repetitiveness... and no, things like post-it notes or reminders in my phone don't really help. My depressed and menopausal brain has the super-power of intensely ignoring whatever information is "too much" and no amount of notes/ reminders has any effect on that...
 
i started taking "media fasts" in 2006 where i abstain from all things electronic for undefined and typically unplanned periods of time. i highly recommend the idea. i never thought of group fasting and am not sure i'm up for it, but it clears the mental static to disconnect from the e-cloud every so often.

for what it's worth
there are now rehab programs for game addiction. internet addiction has an official acronym now. IAD (internet addiction disorder). won't be long before the programs form.
 
I was walking through a busy airport a couple of weeks ago and got really upset about phones. Absolutely no one was talking to anyone or interacting with their families or people they were traveling with. Everyone was buried in their screens. Small children were being ignored. Mouths were mindlessly eating. Feet were walking while heads were down. It was a super crowded, pathetic scene. I'm not a big phone user, especially in public, so I felt like a real odd ball.
 
I was walking through a busy airport a couple of weeks ago and got really upset about phones. Absolutely no one was talking to anyone or interacting with their families or people they were traveling with. Everyone was buried in their screens. Small children were being ignored. Mouths were mindlessly eating. Feet were walking while heads were down. It was a super crowded, pathetic scene. I'm not a big phone user, especially in public, so I felt like a real odd ball.
After several years? I finally figured out this was why combat vets kept singling me out, in airports and other places… my head was on a swivel.

Paying attention isn’t something normal people do.

I want to try and go totally "offline" one day per week. Sunday seems like an easy/ fitting choice for me.
I’m so disconnected from the world, at present, that I won’t join you on this adventure, but it is something I have often done… as I’ll be about 3 days travel from the nearest relay tower. If I’m doin well I have a satphone on my person. If I’m doing badly? It’s just me.

It is a useful skill to have, being dependent on nothing/no one. And yet? A useful resource to keep in your back pocket.

I highly reccomend periodic vacations of at least a week.

Boredom? Breeds creativity. And change induces strength & self confidence. Go get ‘em!
 
A digital detox is something I’ve been trying to do lately. Thankfully I never got onto Twitter and I’m past being interested in TikTok. Facebook doom scrolling, not actually reading anything interesting, is a habit I need to break.

The job I’m in now has helped a lot as I just can’t look at my phone much during the day. However, I’m now in the process of ditching my Apple Watch. I realised that the constant nudges were actually really annoying. So and so text, this news article is breaking, stand up! You reached your goal, oh that person is texting you, you have an email…. My god! That and also I noticed I was both disappointed with myself for not reaching a move goal or when I did, subconsciously going ‘great I don’t need to do anymore nowI’. I’ve actually been more active without wearing it.

Another downfall is YouTube. Sometimes I find myself watching mindless rubbish and I don’t even know why.
 
Ooh, thanks for the reminder that my first digital detox is tomorrow... My brain is such a sieve...
I'm kind of looking forward to it and kind of also feeling withdrawal symptoms in advance : P
I'd better go and put some post-it notes on my laptop and my phone so I don't keep forgetting tomorrow...
See you all on Monday *excited wave*
(Why does it feel like I'm going on an exotic trip to a mysterious destination... It's only 24 hours offline, ffs!)
 
Back
Top