The holidays are full of people reminding you they are active and celebrating together. It’s always great to see, but the constant flow of posts can be a bit overwhelming and slightly competitive. Every picture is supposed to capture an authentic moment in time, some of that might be true, yet it can feel quite fake. Taking a quick tech detox, even for only a day, will be beneficial for you and your sanity.
Detaching from your phone is agonizing. Usually, mine is glued to my hand and I have to remind myself from time to time that it’s not healthy. We often don’t realize how consumed we are with technology, so it’s nice to take a step back. From what I can tell, doing it right before the holidays is the best time. You are just coming off of midterms where you are stuck cramming and staring at your screen for hours on end, but right before the holidays there is a slight lull in social media. Everybody at this point will have already talked about their pumpkin spice lattes and what fall color is on-trend.
This allowance of time frees up your schedule in ways that you will not be able to believe. There will be time to do the things that you have always wanted to do, whatever they might be. For me, that time was used for reconnecting with my family and learning a new skill such as skateboarding. Participating in the popular fall activity, apple picking, is also good and you will not be concerned with going there and taking a photo for the likes, but instead, truly enjoying your time there. There are difficulties with going completely unplugged in nature and the first instinct is that you have to feel appreciative of the nature you are surrounded by. However, that slowly follows with guilt because you immediately want to go back on your phone. This should not be a guilty action due to the fact that we were raised in a time where technology is so prevalent and all-consuming.
The trick of truly being unplugged is to believe that you need a break from the world. By saying this I am not encouraging you to abandon all social media and not stay up to date with news, but what I am encouraging is the break that we all need but don’t allow ourselves to take. We work for rewards, yet we rarely get to indulge in the pleasures that make life worth living. The smallest things like hearing a child laugh, or watching that show you loved as a kid, or even just sipping warm apple cider. Also, this time can be used for self-reflection and can be a reminder of the beautiful flaws in life. Social media always tends to portray things as perfect, but that’s not reality and we often forget that because we are so caught up on what the latest things are. This detox will be a much-needed breath of fresh air.