Blog – Mehret Biruk

4 radical digital detox ideas

The word radical describes a person, an action or a thing that is especially impressive, inspiring, extraordinary, revolutionary, visionary, exciting, remarkable, exceptional, amazing, marvellous, sensational, incredible, unbelievable, phenomenal, spectacular…

You get the point.

Naturally, most of my approaches to practicing digital well-being have been extreme, like quitting social media altogether, or trying to flush my phone down the toilet. Spoiler alert: iPhone 4s doesn’t flush.

Over the years, implementing radical changes, not including flushing my phone down the toilet, have forced me to experience life without constantly escaping into digital distractions. Once I experienced the blissful offline world, it is hard to want to go back to spending countless hours mindlessly browsing the internet, obsessively checking for messages, or reading news that has 0.001% relevancy to my life.

Below are four radical digital detoxes I have implemented over the years that have helped me experience the joy of the world outside of my phone screen.

1. Delete data subscription

Not having internet connection on the go might seem like social suicide in our increasingly hyperconnected world, but hear me out.

Story time.

The first time I downgraded my phone plan to a basic text/call only plan was out of financial necessity as a college student. After being introduced to frugal living (read: coping living— just kidding, I love frugal living ideals), everything seemed to be a waste of money.

The online frugal living community was in agreement that paying for data was one of the many ways we waste money. Since I spent most of my days on campus or at home, which meant I had access to wifi most of the time, it made sense to cancel my data subscription and save money.

What started as ultimate college survival tip turned to one of the best lessons on our hyper-connected world.

For over two years, I lived without data on my phone. Not only did I miraculously survived, but it made me realize that 24/7, on-the-go internet access wasn’t a necessity. Some of my best days during those times were spent a full day without wifi access.

However, living without data required some pre-planning.

For instance, for GPS, I’d take a screenshot of the routes on Google Maps when I have wifi access and then save it to my photo library. I’d also download music and podcast episodes for offline access.

Another unintended outcome of not having online access on the go was it forced me to be content with whatever was available for offline access, minimizing the paradox of choice. I enjoyed the podcast episode, or songs downloaded for offline access, without FOMO taking over.

Currently, I get 0.5GB data a day on a roaming international plan (long story), which basically means I don’t have data. I save what data I have for iMessage and WhatsApp, and GPS use. It helps that my iPhone functions as a dumb phone with very minimal need for internet.

2. D̶e̶l̶e̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ Rethink your social media accounts

All those 30-dAyS-wItHoUt-sOcIaL-mEdiA challenges are for the feeble-minded! Delete all that…

Say no more and opt out from big data!

You are an impressive, inspiring, extraordinary, revolutionary, visionary, exciting, remarkable, exceptional, amazing, marvellous, sensational, incredible, unbelievable, phenomenal, spectacular individual. You do not need social media to validate your existence!

Anyway.

If you can’t imagine living without social media, you can create a personal rule to manage your relationship with social media. No social media apps on your phone? Only follow people you know or actually communicate with? Limit social media time to a certain amount of time a day? The options are limitless.

Prior to deleting social media, I had a personal rule that I could only have a maximum of two social media accounts at a time.

3. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb indefinitely

My phone has been on Do Not Disturb for years now. Except for phone calls, my phone doesn’t vibrate or ring for notifications.

You ever hear/feel your phone vibrate or ring, but when you check it there are no notifications? It blew my mind when, after a few months of putting my phone on Do Not Disturb, that feeling completely went away.

That alone is honestly so amazing.

I truly enjoy not being constantly startled by the buzzing and beeping sounds of my phone. If it is urgent, people will call, and if I ever need to turn notifications for texts, I can simply turn off Do Not Disturb.

For now, I enjoy not owning my phone constant attention at its command.

4. Schedule digital breaks

Schedule a time frame in your day, week or month to take a break from all digital stimulation. During these breaks, you unplug everything and then you go out into the wide wild world to find something to do… *gasp!*… offline.

This doesn’t mean stare at a wall until the time is up.

This would be a great time to spend time with… actual… humans, read that novel you have been meaning to finish (a physical copy, of course), and take a three-hour long bath with your thoughts, just because you can.

The best way I have found to take digital breaks is by cultivating high-quality offline leisure. The more time I spend doing offline activities, the less time I spend online.

Until next time…

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Create space between you and your smartphone

Sometimes, all you need is a lil’ space.

If you are anything like the average smartphone user, you spend around 4 hours each day on your phone. That is roughly 50 days a year.

If you’re also anything like the average smartphone user, a good chunk of the time you spend on your phone is spent on social networking sites; 2.4 hours to be exact.

Even Apple knows that is a little bit too much time for its users to spend on their devices. So much so that, Apple released the Screen Time app back in 2018 as part of its “digital health” initiative to address growing concerns around increasing device usage, smartphone addiction and social media’s impact on our mental well-being.

One feature of the Screen Time app is to track the hours a user spends on their phone on a daily and weekly basis and generate a report.

Value your attention

If I told you your attention is worth billions of dollars, would you believe me?

In 2019, Instagram reportedly generated $20 billion in revenue, “an extraordinary success” for a photo-sharing app. That same year, Facebook made $70.9 billion. What exactly is apps like Instagram and Facebook selling to generate such a staggering amount of profit?

Attention.

To generate such profit, the likes of Facebook would do anything to keep us constantly paying attention to their apps and feeds, including offering their services for free. We pay the price in our collectively declining mental, physical, and social well-being.

Attention harvesting and selling attention is a very profitable business model. The slot-machines in our pockets ping, ding, and provide limitless content to command our attention. And, we give our attention away freely.

Why don’t we value our attention as much as Instagram values it?

Look up!

A couple years back, a few friends and I went to Nuit Blanche to see art installations scattered through downtown Toronto and, in the process, we got a reality check about life.

As we are strolling through downtown, a friend says, “I never look up.”

At that statement, we all look up, observing buildings and structures we have never noticed before that moment.

Turning my smartphone into a dumb phone

Understanding digital tools don’t cause our digital addiction is one thing. The attention economy is a whole other beast. There is not enough willpower in the world to avoid the constant instant gratification and distractions a smartphone provides. We need a more aggressive solution to take back our precious time and attention.

One such solution is to simply opt out.

Demonizing the tool(s) is scapegoating

Addiction is escapism.

It is an attempt to escape the unappealing realities of life; pain, boredom, loss, emotional turmoil, suffering.

The widely accepted definition describes addiction as excessive use of drugs or alcohol to escape, relax, or as a reward to enjoy life, with the belief that you can’t cope without them. Addiction has two basic qualities: you do more of the thing than you would like to, and you continue to do it despite its negative consequences.

In addition, at least three of the following criteria must be met to be diagnosed for addiction: tolerance, withdrawal, limited control, negative consequences, neglecting or postponing activities, significant time or energy spent, and the desire to cut down.

Self-medicating with art: A guide

Let’s define self-medicating first.

Self-medicating is the use of alcohol or drugs, or any external influence, to manage physical or psychological afflictions. Almost anything used in excess to deal with or escape negative emotions can be considered self-medicating.

The opposite of addiction is connection

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection.
— JOHANN HARI

In the podcast episode The Opposite of Addiction by Your Undivided Attention, Johann Hari makes the case that addiction, amongst other mental health issues, is a symptom of a deeper problem of a disconnected society.

The issue of internet addiction, for instance, isn’t the internet itself, but rather the void it helps us fill.

In other words, addiction is escapism.

From a smartphone to a flip phone

A guest post by a dear friend of mine: CK. Without further ado…

Cause and effect is an important principle.

If we are assessing our smartphone use (effect) then what causes its use? Is the cause being uncomfortable with the current situation?

I observe a lot of people using their phones when there’s a small amount of silence in a room with two people. For example, in a doctor’s office, an elevator, or waiting for someone in a restaurant. It’s almost reflexive. If so, how do we get more comfortable with that uncomfortable silence?