Panache

When the digital world starts taking too much time than the real world. When social media gets too draining, instead of serving you inspiration, information, and healthy interactions.

Maybe it’s time to maintain a distance between yourself and toxic digital habits that can harm you over time.

Below is the list of some habits that are blaring signs that you need a Digital Detox.

You feel anxiety while using the phone.

Have you been feeling a heavy weight on your chest when you scroll through multiple apps? Everything is beautiful on Instagram and your life is dull and plain. Everyone has been getting a promotion on Linkedin and you are stuck in the same position where you were 2 years ago.

These feelings when generalized take a heavy toll on your mental health. Soon, you start feeling a sort of anxiety when you scroll through the magical world. It is not just FOMO. But, a feeling of downright spirals into the abyss.

Various types of news pieces, multiple videos about chaos, or everyday news about how the world is getting hopeless day by day also generate a feeling of anxiety and hopelessness in your mind.

The more such content you will consume, the more you will start believing in them. Everything starts feeling empty and meaningless. You think that you are a part of a dystopian world and yet you do not fit into it.

Social media is becoming too overwhelming for you.

When you are too attached to the screen, you are bound to spend a lot of time on social media. About 68% of Americans spend most of their time on Instagram and TikTok. Then, there is Snapchat, where people are compulsive to post every day to achieve a longer streak.

Though it all starts from fun and curiosity, soon it becomes a boundation to post every day. Once you start getting validation from SM apps. You start defining your life by vanity metrics like impressions, likes, dislikes, and subscribers.

There are times when it gets too overwhelming for you but you feel too attached to the metrics and your whole identity starts getting defined by those. At this point, you feel a necessity to post on SM every day. Because it gives you the ultimate dopamine rush.

And nothing in the real world can suffice that. Instead of you ruling the social media, the world of Social Media (SM) has started ruling your life. And, you don’t even realize it.

You do not have a real life anymore.

Once you reach the aforementioned stage you will realize that you don’t have a real life anymore. You spend most of your time with online friends and your interaction with people surrounding you has minimized.

You barely realize that you have been interacting with the socialmedia presence of people and not real people. You don’t remember when was the last time you had a real conversation with someone.

 You have been so indulged in checking the boxes of your online presence that you forget that you have real life, real relationships, and real friends.

Then, it is high time, that you need a digital detox. You need to get out in the sun, touch  the grass, and see people in real life.

You experience ghost ringing.

You can’t stay away from your phone and when you do you have the constant urge to check it. But ghost ringing is a step ahead of that. It is when you check your phone because you felt it was ringing but it was not ringing.

Ghost Ringing is not just when you are relying too much on technology. It also happens when you associate your phone with some kind of stress or anxiety.

Ming is a game operation manager at a firm in China but at her ex-employee, she always had to work late hours and through her phone. She had to be present all the time via text and there was no other option for her. When asked, Ming confessed that she started experiencing ghost ringing. The stress and later working hours made her quit her job.

Now, she works in a healthier environment with a better work-life balance.

If you feel your phone is ringing even though it is not, then you might be living under technological stress and it is not healthy for your mental health.

You doom scroll uncontrollably. Eventually zooming out.

You check your phone once you wake up. Soon, you realize yourself doom- scrolling through Youtube, Instagram, or TikTok. You don’t know what you are watching but you are going from one reel to another, deriving cheap dopamine out of it. Soon you zoom out without realizing it.

Every mental health expert warns about these sources of cheap dopamine. But you don’t realize when has this become your habit. Now, you have started scrolling through social media in the morning and bed. If that is the case with you too, it is a warning sign.

Most people don’t realize the dangers of it but it can severely affect your sleeping patterns, appetite, and mental health. It also leads to lesser life satisfaction and overstimulated brains.

There is no downtime for your devices.

You get up and the first thing to do is to reach out for your phone. After scrolling through the feed you get up, make yourself some coffee, probably use the washroom, and brush your teeth. However, you could not get rid of the phone through all this.

The fact that your device has no downtime. If you are awake, your device needs to be awake with you. You are scrolling, playing music, watching videos, checking emails, and doing other things. You tell yourself that you are working and being kept updated through that but you are stuck.

You have your device in the washroom, in bed, on your work table, when you are eating, and when you are outside. It is a big sign that you need some digital detox.

You feel the urge to check your phone again and again.

How long can you go without checking your phone? If you want to answer this question, all you need to do is to do this experiment with yourself. Try to live your life without checking your phone and see if you have that urge to do it again and again.

This will tell you if you have made a life away from your online presence. Sometimes, it is not the presence but a constant urge to check your phone. At times, there is no objective to check the phone but you do it because you feel compelled.

Eventually, you find yourself on some app, doom-scrolling mindlessly. If this has been happening to you more frequently, then it is a huge sign that you are in need of a detox.

You feel that FOMO.

FOMO is not just an abbreviation followed by a hashtag. It is a real phenomenon. Something that you feel when you see pictures and videos of your friends who are vacationing but you are stuck in your office.

A feeling that you experience when you want to know what has been going on in the world and you reach for an SM app, without even realizing it. Feeling Of Missing Out after a certain threshold can lead to feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, and comparisons.

It stops you from living a fulfilled life. After knowing what is happening in the world, suddenly, you get worried about the things that may not directly affect your existence. You start worrying and downgrading your achievements, after watching a shiny life through a conditioned lens. But you can’t stop because you are too addicted.

Your attention span has decreased and You are experiencing brain rot.

A Big challenge that comes after a prolonged use of social media and TikTok is reduced attention span. Every social media algorithm is in competition to keep you hooked to them.

Creators are making content with click-baity captions, headlines, and images. You are getting overwhelmed by the content not being able to decide which to watch and which one to leave.

Combine this feeling with FOMO, and you get over-saturated with content choices and end up watching everything. But your attention span decreases because you can consume only so much in a day.

Prolonged practice of this sort leads to brain rot. Now, you are incapable of watching quality content. You play videos for ambient noise. It leads to the degradation of mental concentration, and intellectual, and cognitive abilities.

You feel the desire to Digital Detox.

Our brains have not developed to consume so much content in a day. We reach our threshold before we even realize it. Technological advancement has been super-fast compared to human evolution over centuries.

Therefore, when we get over-saturated by screen time, consuming online content, or online presence. Our body starts signaling us to keep away from screens for a while.

So, if you start feeling that it is getting too much and you need some away time from your screen. It is the biggest sign that you need a digital detox as soon as possible.

Conclusion

It is not that you need a digital detox. It is about maintaining a healthy relationship between digital gadgets and yourself. There is a thin line when these screens sneak in and start dictating our lives in every possible.

After you realize that the digital world is getting too much into your life, that is the moment you should step back and take charge of your life.

Remember, that these habits gradually get into your life. So, you can’t leave it abruptly, but the realization is the first step.