Take a digital detox
Our screen fixation is harming us
THE relationships we have with our children are critical. We have an important role to play in their healthy development and learning.
A few months ago, I wrote about how we might support our children as they manage the barrage of news and information that comes at them daily on their phones and screens. I have recently been talking to some colleagues who are implementing measures at home so that there are screen-free, phone-free family conversations and gatherings.
Real-life interactions are so much better for us all. There are many recommendations and guidelines for “daily screen time’’.
The Raising Children Network, raisingchildren.net.au, is worth a look if you want to learn more about healthy screen times for different ages and stages.
The key idea is that the more time we are on screens, the less time we are engaging in social, healthy fun and outdoor experiences.
For our teenagers, it also means there is a danger that screens are getting in the way of reading, and enough sleep.
Catherine Price has written an interesting and provocative book called How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-day Plan to Take Back Your Life.
In it she explores how the time we spend on our phones damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories.
She encourages us to think about why we love our phones so much – they are our cameras and our music source, they can tell us the answer to any trivia question at all and they keep us in touch with our friends.
But she also helps us see the impact of their use in our lives. Our screens and phones make it hard to set boundaries between our online and offline lives.
Price’s interest in phones is personal. She noticed how her attention span was shorter, her memory and ability to focus not as good as they once were. She also noticed she took her phone with her everywhere, picked it up constantly, and sent myriad texts when she should have been engaging in actual conversations.
Price is not alone. More than 80 per cent of Americans report that they keep their phones near them almost all the time during waking hours. One report suggests some smartphone users check and touch their phone more than 5000 times a day.
So this is not a trivial issue. Our phones and screens are having serious effects on our relationships, our brains, and the way we interact with our world. Maybe we need to stop and listen to ourselves and take stock.
Price says that according to the 2017 edition of the American Psychological Association’s yearly Stress in America report, nearly two-thirds of American adults agree that “unplugging’’ or taking a “digital detox’’ would be good for their mental health.
Price and her husband engaged in such an experiment by taking a 24-hour break from their phones and internet-enabled devices. They completely disconnected from their screens.
During this break they realised how dependent they were on them. They also experienced such a restorative and freeing time without them that they now take what they call a “digital Sabbath” regularly. They go on walks, read, talk more, and feel more in touch with each other and themselves.
Want to learn how to do what they did? Well, you can buy Price’s book or you can use technology to unplug from technology. Go to her website to find some resources and apps to get your digital detox started: phonebreakup.com/ home/.
‘‘ OUR PHONES AND SCREENS ARE HAVING SERIOUS EFFECTS ON OUR RELATIONSHIPS, OUR BRAINS, AND THE WAY WE INTERACT WITH OUR WORLD.