“Your screentime was down 12% last week”

Time is a really interesting experience in that with it comes influence and education by everyone around you. When social media first took off, there was such an intense emphasis on our utilization of it. A mixture of capitalism and consumerism drove (and drives) companies to encourage people to buy their digital products and the associated technologies needed to utilize them. While this remains true to this day, well past the early days of smartphone sales, there has been a considerable shift in the thoughts toward phone consumerism and mental health resulting from research and experience. One such result from this shift is the integration of such tracking measures as “Screen Time” in iPhones that indicate phone usage for the user. While I personally have fallen victim to using my phone far longer than I should have, I really appreciated the challenge of the digital detox. 

I have been really intentional this summer with keeping work at work and school at school. This results in me finding time to do other activities I greatly enjoy, such as reading, and even more so leads me to use my phone less. The detox challenge allowed me to cultivate this pedagogy even more when between Thursday and Friday I decided to disconnect from social media sites. These days were perfect for me to disconnect as they were the days I needed to completely pack my office (I’m getting renovations!) so I did not need my phone much for work reasons. Even further, I utilized time at home to remain disconnected. I read and did some packing in my home and mostly did not find myself using my phone beyond just a phone call here or there to my parents. 

Coming back from the disconnect seemed pretty seamless. I returned to social media and found things pretty much where they were beyond just my friends sending me messages or Tiktoks on there. It was easier than I thought it would be nor did I feel an intense FOMO.  I really appreciate detoxes and need to get more involved in them.