Year-end holidays: Make the most of the time with a digital detox

It's no surprise that many of us have suffered from being too digitally active during a pandemic. Maintaining “digital mental health” has become a common topic.

Social media, online shopping, and even the fulfillment of mandatory needs such as paying bills online show that technology has permeated every aspect of our lives.

Whether we're at school or working from home, we're never far from our cell phones. We even use video communication technology to stay in touch with friends and loved ones, whether near or thousands of kilometers away.

Honestly, it's really hard to imagine how we could ever cut ties with technology. Various kinds of demands to be present digitally constantly exist. The effects of these demands also immediately overwhelm us. In the end it becomes very burdensome. qqcitybet

When the year-end holidays come, we may plan to take a break from work and maybe go on vacation. So, why not take this opportunity to try a digital detox?

Through research, we investigate ways to reduce technology use on holidays. Here's what we found.

1. Save and lock

By far, the most efficient way to maximize detoxification is to lock our phones, laptops and tablets. Of course, we have the option to enable “Do Not Disturb” mode, or selectively turn off notifications in some apps.

However, turning off notifications on certain groups of apps is quite a task. With your phone still in your pocket, there's always an excuse to check Facebook or Instagram, reply to an email, or upload a photo. This way, you're still accessing your phone, and opening apps without even knowing it.

We can consider ways to limit cell phone usage time.

For example, an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. But our research found that people find more reasons to stay online. Without realizing it, we can spend more time surfing in cyberspace.

So, the best solution is to stop our online time. Lock your phone in a box, or hide it somewhere. This effort will eliminate the difficulty of turning off notifications or limiting our cellphone time.