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Switching Off – Mentally and Technologically

If your life is anything like mine, you may feel like you’ve just spent the best part of the last six months staring aimlessly at a computer screen. In order to complete my uni work and stay on top of my less-IRL, more-WWW based social life, I feel like my eyes have finally turned square, just like my mother warned me they would.

Source

So, when the time comes that being attached to the lap to a computer is no longer necessary, how do you part ways with the inanimate object which has grown a life of its own and taken over yours?

Step one is to realise that it’s no longer necessary to check your emails 17 times a day, whether it was for work or procrastination purposes. Consciously stopping yourself from picking up the laptop or checking your phone will make you realise you don’t really need to see that spam email or pointless emoji message right this second.

If your own self control isn’t strong enough, try relocating out of your comfort zone and into a space different to the one that’s been so technology heavy. A different country is ideal, but if that’s not possible, try anywhere outdoors and away from wifi. All the cool things people are doing and the amazing places they’re visiting that are appearing in your newsfeed are things you can do too! So don’t be jealous, just close the laptop lid and go out into the world.

Us seeing outside for the first time in six months. Source

Although at first, you may feel like you don’t know what’s going on in the world and have too much to catch up on, you’ll soon realise you’re paying more attention to what is going on around you rather than what is happening in other places and on your newsfeed. And after a few days of not knowing what’s happening, you won’t even really care what’s happening. You’ll care about how you’re going to make the most of the day and how to best be with the people around you.

Switching off from social media, and all media in general, is a difficult thing to do in this day and age. You are ultimately changing your priorities and your current lifestyle to a degree. But even just disconnecting for a few days can be beneficial to your mental health and reinforce that life is not just lived through a screen. Give your brain and your heart a break from all the white noise social media. Go outside without a phone and just live your life. At least for a few days.