Digital Detox: A Relaxing, Yet Uncomfortable Experience

Upon returning from my Spring Break escapades, I decided to challenge myself to complete a Digital Detox over the five days I had remaining over break. At the beginning of the five day period (Tuesday-Saturday), my main goal was to stay off of social media. While I wanted to remove email from the equation as well, I simply was expecting too many important emails for that to be a realistic option. So I basically ignored my phone for five straight days other than actually using it for its original “mobile telephone” purpose to call my friends. I must say, I discovered that the push notification feature on my iPhone is one of the main perpetrators in my iPhone addiction. I quickly realized at the beginning of the five period how difficult the challenge would be, after I received four or five push notifications from Facebook and Snapchat within the first hour of my Detox. True to the challenge, I chose to ignore them, although I was very tempted to check the Snapchats. I remember thinking: “It would only take a second”, but if I have learned anything from this class, it is that digital addiction has a snowball effect and I would surely be lured by the intrigue of my iPhone’s web access.

Although that first bit of temptation was difficult, I found the next few days to be surprisingly easy. I believe the experience was tamed slightly by the reality that I was on Spring Break. This meant that my need to interact digitally took a back seat to pure relaxation. I cannot say I was more productive without Facebook and other apps/sites. In reality, I replaced the time I spent mindlessly cruising the internet with TV hours. I don’t have cable at school in Tucson, so one addiction just replaced another, but it was a welcomed change. I really liked shutting out Facebook for the week, but the limited texting that I allowed was dreadful. I waited to start my detox until after I returned from my main Spring Break trip to California over the first half of break. The plan was to freely use digital media, enjoy my friends, and have fun over the first half of break. I wanted to follow that up by just kicking-back and relaxing while pulling the plug on digital interaction. While I liked not being on the internet, I certainly missed texting my friends and being connected there. I knew I could just call them if I wanted, and to be honest I hung out with them and they were always around over the latter half of break, but it just felt weird. I did not like it! I also missed the news. I had to read a physical newspaper, which I don’t think I have done in years. I typically use my Pulse News app which neatly compiles all of my news sources into one screen. I was instead met by a 30 page bundle of random news stories, of which I only cared about a few stories.

My main conclusion is that the detox left me feeling relieved to know that I could go through with it, but uncomfortable about the way I missed using the main features of my phone and computer. I can happily say I did not cheat, but I part of me wishes that I had…