Digital detox refers to the act of staying offline for a period of time to figuratively smell the roses. There are supposedly many benefits of cutting yourself off completely from the digital world to focus on tangible things that are right in front of you. A cursory Google search reveals that digital detox may alleviate stress, increase physical-world social interaction, and even result in better posture.
However, there is something troubling about the concept of unplugging in today’s world because it forces us to do something unnatural. One may argue that what’s unnatural is being online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But times have changed, and being digitally connected is something that has worked its way into the daily functions of our lives.
Hyperconnectivity is our reality and taking a step back from our gadgets and devices removes us from the loop. And when we get back to it, we have a lot of catching up to do. Imagine not opening your work email for a week and being bogged down by the backlog when you log back in. Imagine switching off your phone for the same time period and the amount of texts you’ll receive – some of which are bound to be panicky (“Did you lose your phone?” “Where the eff are you?” “Did you die?”) – when you switch it back on. Plus let’s not even get started on the hundreds of messages in your different Facebook Messenger and Viber threads that you have to backread. And doesn’t that just double, if not triple, the amount of stress?
While digital detox does have a host of positive effects on our health and wellbeing, it just doesn’t seem like a viable option because of the very nature of our current lifestyles. We can’t go off the Internet grid forever; we eventually have to come back and revert to our familiar ways when the detox ends.
Besides, how can you possibly go completely offline when everyone around you is online? Picture this: you’re going to meet your friends one Saturday afternoon for coffee.
First of all, how are you going to know the details of that meet without your phone? Is one of your friends actually that kind to go to your house, knock on your door and tell you to block off your Saturday 2:00 p.m. for catching up with the girls at your favorite coffee shop in BGC?
Now let’s say that your girl Stacy truly is an angel and braved Edsa traffic to do just that and there you all are at the location just as planned… Of course, your friends will all ask you how your digital detox is going and you’ll answer that it’s been great and they’re all going to express how much they admire you for it and wish that they could do the same thing.
The conversation will eventually grow arms and lead to a lot of different things. Questions such as “Have you seen the latest viral video?” will pop up. The group will also talk about this friend’s mysterious Facebook post and this other friend’s beautiful Instagram picture. And everybody’s going to be on their phones to see what’s up. At that point, you’d have no idea what’s going on. You’ll start feeling an intense case of FOMO because you can’t relate anymore. Because of your self-imposed digital hiatus, you can’t even get a Grab or Uber home and would have to manually hail a cab home. Ugh.
Internet memes and trends come and go on a daily basis and being away for more than just a couple of days means you’ve been living under a rock. As theguardian.com’s Brigid Delaney eloquently states, “The phrase ‘digital detox’ seems quaint, like something from another era (2013? 2014?). It’s 2016 and we are past the point of no return.”
She’s absolutely right. Going on a digital detox is an exotic primitive fantasy like Cleopatra milk and honey baths, the act of having breakfast at Tiffany’s, and traversing the streets of Metro Manila without being stuck in two-hour traffic jams on a Friday night.
Does that mean that we just have to live with digital over-consumption because we have no choice? Not quite, because you can turn your phone off, you know? You can step away from the keyboard. Even for just a couple of hours a day. You don’t have to bring your devices to bed with you at night. It’s all about setting boundaries, assigning no-gadget zones and knowing when to stop scrolling. Ultimately – and because a full-blown digital detox is way too extreme – it’s all about figuring out the most suitable and effective online-offline plan for yourself.
I’m @EdBiado on Twitter and Instagram.