Technology is a wonderful invention that has brought an incredible amount of good to society. But it has also brought with it an equal (if not more) amount of challenges and harm.
There are hundreds of studies that show the contribution smartphones, and social media, in particular, make to some pretty serious mental health problems.
The ones that relate to children and teenagers are by far the most concerning. In one study fifty percent of teenagers (and 27% of adults) reported feeling addicted to their mobile devices. And device use has been weakly correlated to teen depression and suicide.
This is really happening. And we can’t afford to ignore it.
One of the most alarming things I read in the above study, is that “Almost 90% of 290 undergraduates reported feeling “phantom vibrations,” which were experienced an average of once every two weeks”.
Our mobile devices are appendages of our body and without them, we not only feel naked, but we also have the sensations common to one who has lost a limb.
There are many changes that need to happen with our social media giants, such as Facebook, for us to be able to take back the power and reduce the negative effects. But let’s not wait.
Let’s make changes now to the way we use social media. Changes that can then be rolled out in our own homes, and wider communities.
Signs you may need a digital declutter
You are overwelmed all the time.
Life can be overwhelming without the addition of social media. Work and family life can be complicated and tough. But when we are constantly online the overwhelm reaches new proportions.
We have any information that we could ever need at the touch of a button. We are over-subscribed and our inboxes and notifications are out of control. It’s a good day when we manage to even clear some of the inbox clutter.
I used to start the day with between 20-30 new emails in my inbox. Facebook notifications that I ‘had’ to look through and clear, and I had this crazy feeling that if I didn’t review the newsfeed since i’d last been online that I would miss something major.
Facebook allowed me to feel involved in other peoples lives like never before. And as a helper and highly sensitive person this is not always a great thing. Life became more complicated and busier as I offered to help people whose status updates resembled SOS smoke rings.
Don’t get me wrong. Helping others is wonderful and we still need to do this. But we can’t do it all. And we need the space to be wise and thoughtful in our offers of help.
You are stuck in a comparison rut
We no longer live insulated from one another. We don’t have to wonder what other peoples homes look like, or what kind of coffee maker they use. It’s all there, on their Instagram account.
Comparison is an innate drive within all of us. It’s a desperate cry to be heard and seen, to feel we are important and worthy.
The hearts, the likes on Facebook and followers on Instagram, they are crafted expertly by the designers of these apps to be not only addictive but to fill the holes that are left by feelings of loneliness, pain and unworthiness.
I made a conscious choice to focus on growing my wee Instagram following this year. I was a late bloomer with this app and decided to check it out and compare it to Facebook.
I’m going to be honest and tell you it’s not my favorite social media platform (yet). I am much more prone to comparison and often leave the app feeling jealous and dissatisfied with my lot.
There I said it.
I’ll continue to work on there, adding my droplets to the vast sea of content. But I’ll take the time to be conscious about a) what I post, and b) those I follow. And I’ll keep reminding myself that the only race I need to run is my own.
You are unproductive (or worse, dangerous)
The last big sign you might need a break is a pretty serious one.
Social media use might be preventing you from doing your job. In fact, one study reported by CBNC reports that 28% of employees were fired for misusing social media at work.
Even if you aren’t an employee your productivity can take a huge nose dive if you are filling your day in with scrolling. It’s way more appealing to catch up on Facebook ‘news’ that fold that third pile of washing right?
And then there’s the dangerous. I’m not going to present any statistics around driving ‘under the influence’, if you are interested you can go here.
If you text or look at a social media app while driving a vehicle, you need this break NOW. I’m ashamed to say I used to think it was okay to just ‘read’ texts while driving. It’s not okay. If we don’t have a hands free kit for calls only, then our phones should be out of sight when driving. Full stop. End of story.
If you recognize any of these signs then I’m going to encourage you to do something about this today.
The one change you need (and can make today)
There are so many things you can do to make your phones and social media accounts work for you and help you, and I’ll outline some of them below.
But there’s one thing that trumps them all.
Take a break.
Whether it’s from your phone completely, or just from social media, a complete break is the fastest and easiest way you can gain some power (and sanity) back.
After feeling twitchy around my social media use (I describe this here), I decided to take a few days off last year. I loved it so much it is now a regular part of my work/life flow.
Besides taking the seemingly drastic measure of taking a break, there are some other great steps you can take.
Six steps to a digital declutter
- Take a complete break. Fast from your phone for 24-48 hours. If this isn’t possible – fast from social media for a set period of time.
- Become conscious of the time you are ‘online’. I recently got an iPhone and have been using the basic screentime stats that come with the phone to track my usage.
- Declutter your inbox. Let a week’s worth of emails build up. Set aside 30-60 minutes to go through each one and decide whether to unsubscribe or not.
- Unfriend and unfollow. Unfriend anyone you wouldn’t allow into your home. Unfollow anyone that doesn’t provide value and joy to your online life.
- Stop all notifications aside from texts. Instead of getting a notification every time you get an email put aside 5 minutes to check them all once a day.
- Create boundaries – a day a week off your phone or social media… or take a few days every few months.
I would suggest taking the above steps as a minimum. If you really want to change your relationship with devices and social media (and ultimately with your loved ones) you might consider working through this excellent (but very long) actionable list to make your iPhone work for you.
As always, if you have any questions or comments you can leave them below or pop into my inbox. I love hearing from you guys.
