Technology has become an essential part of today’s life. Whether we consider college students or older people, everyone is using some technology regularly. While using it in moderation is entirely okay, it is not okay when one gets addicted.
The addiction can be for any technology- mobile phones, laptops, TV, Netflix, Snapchat. Any addiction can lead to harmful consequences for one’s health & well-being. Because of this, it has become crucial to decrease your use of technology or do a detox.
We feel digital detox is most important for college students because they spend thousands of dollars on education. Getting addicted to technology can make all their money go to waste. Moreover, when a person is in their growing stages, they must adopt good practices that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.
With that said, we would like to start today’s blog on how college students can do a digital detox in 9 steps.
Identify When You Use Devices
The first thing before doing a digital detox is to know at what times do you use technology. It is vital to identify it because you will be able to follow the further steps when you know it. You have to recognize at what times you use your smartphone and social media.
You have to ask yourself, “Do you check your phone first thing in the morning and the last thing at night?”. If that’s the case, you can be sure that you’re somewhat addicted to technology, and it may take you some time to take control of your life and not let technology control you.
Use An Actual Alarm Clock
We feel most people wake up in the morning with the sound of alarm from their phones. Most of us didn’t realize how we transitioned from an actual alarm clock to a smartphone's clock. But it happened, not only with a single person but with a majority of people.
If you’re addicted to technology, we want you to start using an actual alarm clock again. When you start doing it, you’ll not look at your phone first thing in the morning. And we feel that’s important because when you switch off the alarm, it’s pretty common to start using your phone to check your email or social media.
Put Your Phone Away While Eating
You may have heard people say that you must ditch technology while eating food and only focus on eating to get the most benefit from it. This is true because any distraction while eating can take your mind off of it, and you will not get any benefit.
Food is essential for our mind and body, and we definitely must not do other things while eating. Many people say they can eat whatever they want, but nothing works for them in reducing or putting on weight. Distraction is the reason why food doesn’t work properly because your mind is elsewhere while eating.
We want you to practice mindful eating from now. It will help you enjoy the food and fill your stomach without having to eat in excess. You can put your phone far from you so that any notification doesn’t make you check it.
Read Books Instead Of Ebooks
Technology has come a long way. It has entirely changed from what it was a few years book because some years back, no one could think they would be able to read books on their smartphones in the future. But it is a reality now, and most people read books on devices like Amazon Kindle.
As a college student, if you have been reading Ebooks (digital books), we want you to shift back to regular books. We’re saying this because it will help you do a digital detox more effectively. When you read ebooks, there is a high probability that you may get some notifications, and your immediate action would be to open them.
We know reading books is good, but it is vital to do it the old-school way so that you can stay away from technology.
Use Laptop To Only Complete Assignments
These days, assignments have to be delivered digitally, as collecting them in physical form is difficult for the professors. Students buy laptops especially for completing assignments, but they end up watching a movie or surfing the internet on them.
Laptops and computers can waste a lot of your precious time that you could be dedicating to other activities. So, from next time onwards, focus only on completing your assignments. And when you’ve completed them, turn off the system so that you don’t get distracted.
We know using laptops only for assignments can seem boring but believe us; you’ll thank yourself for giving less time to technology.
Set Small Goals
When we start something, we tend to set big goals because of the motivation at that time. But that motivation slowly starts fading, and it is a matter of time before you get back to the same old habits. It can also happen when you want to do a digital detox. It is disappointing when you let go of your entire progress because of a lack of motivation.
So, how can you avoid this from happening to you?
There are no hard and fast rules that you must follow. You simply have to set small goals that you can achieve. No, we’re not saying you cannot achieve big goals. The thing is, progress is made with small but continuous steps.
So, set small goals like reducing your smartphone usage by 2 hours. When you do it for a week, increase the time, and slowly you’ll develop a habit. And before you know it, you would have climbed several steps that seemed difficult at first.
Turn Off Notifications
The notifications you get on your smartphones could be the reason why you get distracted so easily and have a poor attention span. You can identify it by considering that you pick up your phone as soon as you get a notification.
You could be acing your digital detox, but one notification can ruin everything. So, what can you do?
You must turn off the notifications of the applications that you use the most (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube). Initially, not getting notifications from your favourite applications can make you feel like something is missing. But you’ll only feel this way for a while. When you get used to it, you won’t even think about these applications.
Don’t Be Too Harsh On Yourself
In the above point, we talked about how one notification can ruin everything. Though it is correct, you don’t have to leave everything because of a single mistake because mistakes can always be corrected and not repeated in the future.
You’ve become so used to using technology for a long time. Leaving it immediately can be challenging for anyone. So, when you make a mistake, know that it is normal, and you must not go too harsh on yourself.
Habits develop over time, and it is good if you know it from the get-go. So, next time you look at your phone because of something, don’t think all your progress went down the drain. Think of it as eating a cheat meal once in a while.
Know That You Can Do It
The last point of this blog is that you have to know you can do it. No matter how challenging it seems at first, you can do it when you set your mind to it.
We know leaving technology in today’s time can seem impossible because we’re so connected with it that even the simple tasks we do use it in some way.
Being positive is the key when you want to achieve good results from a digital detox. When you’re doing it, don’t do it forcefully. Do it with the interest of how your behaviour and life would change after the detox.
When you’re curious about something and do it with a child-like interest, you’ll discover how easy and fun it becomes. Aim for a child-like curiosity to do the detox easily.
Conclusion
In today’s time, separating yourself from technology can seem like a far-fetched dream. It is true up to an extent because we cannot entirely give up on technology. After all, regular tasks like receiving emails about classes and assignments are important.
But you can definitely reduce the time you spend using smartphones because the truth is, most of your mobile usage is for unnecessary tasks. Once you realize the time you’re wasting, you’d want to get your life back to normal. And we believe it can only happen when you do a digital detox. So, in this blog, we covered 9 steps to do a digital detox. We hope these steps will help you do it successfully.
