How to go on a tech diet

Dubai - The pandemic has increased our dependence on technology. But as with food intake, a planned consumption can help

Two years on, the world is still coping with the repercussions of the pandemic that has upended our lives. As we confined ourselves in our houses, with little or no human interactions, we found solace in Zoom calls with family and friends and work from home and online education became our way of living.

Technology eased hardships of repeated lockdowns. But along the way, we picked up some unproductive tech habits, and our phone became a magnet pulling us to check for missed work emails or breaking news, or even social media updates.

According to research, an average individual spends more than five hours a day on a device. Someone working or learning from home, much more. We are anyway living in the age of easily-available distractions, and the prolonged nature of the pandemic has made us even more addicted to technology.

What is addiction? It is engaging in a specific behaviour that is problematic or hard to stop, and like other behavioural addictions, technology addiction can have a negative impact.

How to tell if you are addicted to tech

• Losing track of how much time we spend online

• Feeling we need more time on the device to be happy

• Withdrawal symptoms when not using our device

• Neglecting our work, school or professional or personal lives

• Poor sleep habits due to Internet activities

• Compulsively checking text messages or notifications

• Losing interest in aspects of your life that don’t involve Internet or technology

• Feeling guilty or getting defensive about the time we spend online

• Physical symptoms, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches, unexplained weight gain, vision changes, and back or neck aches

Former tech CEO Stuart Wall confesses that tech firms exploit our brains to capture our attention. Wall also shared research showing that our brains and nervous system can be rewired and transformed through repetitive, focused attention or activity in a process called neuroplasticity. Repetitive device usage is a perfect example of neuroplasticity at work, which means that the more time we spend responding to push notifications, blindly following algorithms, watching videos in infinite scroll or looking for social validation from social media, the more our brains will rewire to want the same. And tech companies use this to their advantage.

It’s time we understood the need to consume technology mindfully and judiciously. Wall suggests a tech diet, thinking of technology consumption as an analogue to food consumption.

Here are a few tips:

1. Willpower is finite: If you don’t want sugary drinks, don’t keep them in the house. We keep the most distracting apps on our home screen, and expect them not to come in the way? Tip: Identify the time-draining apps (here are a few humble suggestions: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat) and limit your time on them. Or use Apple’s Content Restrictions on the iPhone and MacBook.

2. Increase your leafy greens: Good content widens our knowledge and skills and could contribute to rewiring our brain in a positive way. Consuming good content is rewarding but demands effort; just like you mindfully increase your intake of leafy greens. Tip: List your leafy greens, I mean useful content, a mindfulness app, your Kindle etc. Put them on your home screen and focus on “healthy consumption”.

3.Tech fasting: Just like intermittent fasting, keep your devices off for a few hours a day. Abstain from your phone for the last half hour and first half hour of the day. And please leave your phone aside while having dinner or taking a walk outdoors.

4. Be the chef of your kitchen: Take over the reins. Be in ‘champion’ mode rather than ‘victim’ mode. Check your apps when you want to or need to, not when a notification beckons. This always-on, high frequency, push-by-default design is a constant distraction.

5. Up your non-tech activities: What do you do which is non-tech? Non-tech activities promote ‘upstairs brain rewiring’, so consciously increase its intake.

Tech dieting is the way to break free of tech addiction as it will help you become less impulsive and more mindful. Conscious effort to stick to your “tech diet” can create a wave of mindfulness and better habits to tide over the most important challenges of our time.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai