Featured image credit: Rubenz Arizta on Unsplash
After last month’s social media reset, I have decided to try a digital reset.
The plan is to shut away my phone and laptop for one week. The hope is I’ll break the habit of reaching for these above all else, and figure out when and why their use would be necessary.
I’m a little apprehensive. What am I going to do if I need to Google something? Will my question go unanswered and I remain ignorant for the remainder of the week? And what happens if I miss a message sent on the family WhatsApp or from one of the, can-count-on-less-than-one-hand, number of people who I speak to on a regular basis?
But a reset is in order as I’ve found myself glitching.
When I’m on my phone, I get stuck in a loop of checking email despite new emails only coming in less than 1% of the time, looking on Rightmove for the house I intend on purchasing with the imaginary funds in my bank account (I know it’s there but the bank haven’t acknowledged it), watching YouTube, and opening up BBC News and getting irritated at most of the stuff that’s been reported.
And when I switch to my laptop I find the glitch has transferred, the only difference being the size of the screen.
I’ve tried app blockers and timers but it’s all too easy to bypass the limitations by going into settings and switching it off entirely or amending the time to gain another 5 minutes, then another 10, and so on until I find myself uninstalling the app because it (read: I) hasn’t helped matters.
As a child, I remember my parents regularly informing me that if I sat too close to the television I’d end up with square eyes. But nowadays, my eyes are rectangular.
You know it is time for a digital reset when a typical evening has come to involve the television switched on, a laptop balancing on the thighs and a phone magically finding its way into the hands at multiple points throughout.
Too many screens! And I wonder why my focus is shot to pieces with the self-inflicted sensory overload.
But it’s not like I’ll be at a loss for things to do. I have nearly an entire IKEA Billy bookcase (the small one) full of unread books; some of which have been waiting since the dawn of time for me to read. I have notepads and pens on standby in place of Microsoft Word and WordPress should inspiration hit at any moment.
I have a forests-worth of old study notes I need to sift through and do something with, otherwise, I fear, I’ll have reached retirement age before I finally get round to sorting them out. I can bake the things I salivate over but never quite drag myself to the kitchen to make and I can try meditation without the aid of the Calm app in the hopes I might find my zen.
The television will still be available, as it would be unfair of me to expect my family to adhere to something just because I’m hellbent on doing it, but without my laptop and phone, I might actually concentrate on the TV and take away more than the occasional soundbite from the programmes I watch.
So, the time has come for me to close my laptop and shut off my phone. And countdown the minutes until we are reunited again.
It’s going to be a long week.
The Lilac 