Digital Detox

I recently came across the phrase “digital detox” and it resonated with me on a deep level. There was a point in the beginning of my (adult) life that I was unknowingly going through my first digital detox experience; It was after I graduated college and wanted a clean slate. I deactivated my facebook, changed my phone number, cut my hair and travelled around the country. It made me feel good. It was a great and humbling/freeing experience to not depend everything on technology and social media, but then it also felt that I was basically cutting off everyone and everything in my life. If you know me and understand how my brain works, you’d know that whenever I tend to decide on one thing, it would always be one of the extremes.

So instead of getting either too in your face everyday that you’d get sick of my shadow, or falling off the grid completely, I decided to now try and find the perfect balance. I know. Seems easy enough, but such an arduous task for someone like me. (Why can’t I just be a normal person?)

Starting today, Im gonna try this social media hiatus. I am not gonna be gone completely, but I will definitely be online a lot less. I’ve already deleted my facebook app (not the account, coz I still need to talk to my family and best friends that are continents away) so I don’t have as much things to waste my time on. I’ve found myself more invested in the relationships of other people rather than the ones I have, and I grew tired of making comparisons and unnecessary judgments. I honestly don’t think me deleting anything makes a difference to the people around me, but it will make a huge difference to myself and the way I perceive things.

The plan is to decrease a significant amount of time staring at my phone as the first step. I’d be a hypocrite if I said I’m not on it as much as every other person. Its almost impossible to set it down because somehow there’s always gonna be content that I would unashamedly devour, no matter how nonsensical it is. It also already proves to be such a challenge considering how working in the fashion industry, I’d always have to be well versed and know about whats going on around it. I literally get emails of runway shows from my manager that I have to watch and share knowledge about. Giving myself a limit on media time is a smart way of prioritizing what I need to look at, and what I shouldn’t even bother concerning myself with.

Step number two is to reconnect with the earth. I’ve found that I personally always get a sense of balance whenever I do nature trips and the like. It’s somehow a sort of reset button that whenever I go up to the mountains by myself or go to the lake with my friends, I always “come back” to the world with a renewed sense of energy.

Going up on little hikes without any phone service actually helps you look a little less at your device and a little more at what surrounds you. Spoiler alert: its beautiful.

A few days ago I went floating with a couple of my friends and just looking at the scenery or listening to the river and to the birds was such a calming experience that it made me not want to leave that state of mind.

 

With that said, step three is to spend more time with people. Actual physical people that you get to have conversations with right in front of you. I want to make a habit of just being in the moment with my friends and family without any worries of what the rest of the world will think. I want to be there and be present instead of being in their company, but occupied with some other people’s curated lives on their pages.

Buying plane tickets to go to places and see my friends and family, just so I could be physically present in their lives is something that I found very important. I had the realization that I didn’t really mind spending money to travel because that’s what I was saving up for in the first place. To see the people I care about in person instead of through a screen has proven great benefits for my mental health.

These little steps are the beginning of my so called digital detox. Cleansing myself from the negativities of the internet, and trying to get a break from it every once in a while.

Less screen time, more nature time, and more people time. It would make me become a better person, and it would give my poor phone a chance to rest. 🤷🏻‍♀️

xx Gizel