Digital Fasting - Detox or Lock down
Digital Detox - A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world. This is what Google Dictionary has to say about the word " Digital Detox " . In this article we will try to understand the three aspects of Digital Detox -
1) Why it is needed ?
2) How it can be practiced ?
3) Evaluation goals .
Before taking any other word , let us directly address the questions and throw light on possible outcomes , which can be measurable .
1 Why it is needed ?
Digital Detox , this term is becoming more and more pertinent in today's world because of two reasons
(i) less of social interaction (2) more of online interaction .
Now a days it is very common that people are friends on Facebook but they have not met each other, from ages or perhaps may have not met each other ever . One of the primary reason why people spend more time online is because they hardly have friends in the physical world with whom they can spend time offline , actually even if they have offline friends , they really rely more on digital friends, because they can also control expectation through like, comments and share mode of mechanism . It is important to state here that online interaction is more of an addiction these days and on an average various studies suggest that people spend more than 6 hours online . In India we see a upsurge trend on people spending lot of time because there are lot of various outlets available like Facebook , Instagram , Whats app, Twitter and other outlets . Facebook posts ,Instagram photos , whats app group chats and status uploads , Instagram stories , memes and too many other medium of communication .
In the hind sight, if we evaluate this actually lot of time people feel that after spending six and seven hours a day on internet , people have actually no clue on what have they achieved . They find completely lost or feel like full of anxiety , stress and other physical ailments which they develop while staying online all the time . Lot of people started feeling that enough is enough , I need to practice social discipline so that I can really spend time in a more productive manner rather than just wasting time online . So people who are looking for the answer to practice fasting from digital channel , can surely find point (2) and point (3) more worth and may practice some of these points for their purpose , which is to stay away from digital channel for some time in a day or for longer duration .
2) How it can be practiced ?
This section is more useful for all those , who are trying hard to maintain some kind of digital fasting , which is nothing but signing of from digital communication from regular interval of time .
More from engineering back ground , I always feel comfortable in addressing a challenge with the help of a equation , so my equation goes like this .
Digital Fasting = Digital Detox + Digital Lock down
so let us try to understand above mentioned equation , which may help you to practice digital fasting .
What are the challenges which one face in practicing digital fasting . As we mentioned it is some time a habit that after every few seconds your eyes goes on the mobile to see " FOMO " which is called as fear of missing out . so here is the point , what is the which you feel you are missing out , actually if you analyse you will find 90 percent of the time , there is nothing which you are missing so you need to prepare and condition your brain in such a way that there is nothing great , which you are going to miss even if you are offline .
Opportunity cost - time which you unnecessary spends on various digital platforms just to see what others are doing , what others are saying , unnecessary discussion or debates , as if we take the example of current lock down which is announced in various parts of the world , because of pandemic, caused by n covid -19 corona virus which has unfortunately shook the world and brings everything in a standstill situation , so people are just online , because of work from home or people are so much addicted to the digital world , that even if they are getting this opportunity to spend time with family , spend time with themselves , but they are hooked to digital social media platforms performing various challenges some times those challenges posted by their friends just have no sense .
Hit the bulls eye - Find out the way you have put discipline in your time so the important point here is if you are not discipline in your day to day life , you will surely find it difficult to maintain that discipline in social platforms also. Like Digital fasting is not that you do not check social platforms , it is required to be connected for some important reasons, some time but you should know how much time you are devoting to online activities .
So Practice following
First step is digital detox
Digital Detox - 6-8 hours of your day ,of course other than your sleeping hours you decide no social media interaction and you will put more time on your professional or personal goals. Just keep mobile phone out of your range or any other device out of your range , devote this time with family , fitness ,cooking , working on your passion or any other things which you feel good about it . No checking status , no checking of Facebook walls , no Instagram feeds (period).
If you can practice step -1 , you should pat yourself for social media discipline and by the way you achieve digital fasting .
Second step is digital lock down
Just decide one or two days in a week , where you just lock down , your social media interactions ( of course if need doesn't exists , which normally is not there ). if you decide you can do it you can do it . It is basically how you condition your brain , if you condition in your brain you can surely achieve this .
so here if you get this equation right you can evaluate yourself
Digital Fasting = Digital Detox + Digital lock down
3) Evaluation goals
First week , just see that how good are you in detox and lock down , if you can practiced extended detox and limited lock down that is also good enough , so i suggest that you put weights on both i.e. digital fasting and digital lock down . if you get those weights right , believe me you will find it so worth and satisfying and it will surely gives you more time for your own self , your fitness , your family and other important aspect. ( further detail on this in my video lecture )
Regards,
Dr Ankush Sharma
4th April 2020
Digital Detox - A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world. This is what Google Dictionary has to say about the word " Digital Detox " . In this article we will try to understand the three aspects of Digital Detox -
1) Why it is needed ?
2) How it can be practiced ?
3) Evaluation goals .
Before taking any other word , let us directly address the questions and throw light on possible outcomes , which can be measurable .
1 Why it is needed ?
Digital Detox , this term is becoming more and more pertinent in today's world because of two reasons
(i) less of social interaction (2) more of online interaction .
Now a days it is very common that people are friends on Facebook but they have not met each other, from ages or perhaps may have not met each other ever . One of the primary reason why people spend more time online is because they hardly have friends in the physical world with whom they can spend time offline , actually even if they have offline friends , they really rely more on digital friends, because they can also control expectation through like, comments and share mode of mechanism . It is important to state here that online interaction is more of an addiction these days and on an average various studies suggest that people spend more than 6 hours online . In India we see a upsurge trend on people spending lot of time because there are lot of various outlets available like Facebook , Instagram , Whats app, Twitter and other outlets . Facebook posts ,Instagram photos , whats app group chats and status uploads , Instagram stories , memes and too many other medium of communication .
In the hind sight, if we evaluate this actually lot of time people feel that after spending six and seven hours a day on internet , people have actually no clue on what have they achieved . They find completely lost or feel like full of anxiety , stress and other physical ailments which they develop while staying online all the time . Lot of people started feeling that enough is enough , I need to practice social discipline so that I can really spend time in a more productive manner rather than just wasting time online . So people who are looking for the answer to practice fasting from digital channel , can surely find point (2) and point (3) more worth and may practice some of these points for their purpose , which is to stay away from digital channel for some time in a day or for longer duration .
2) How it can be practiced ?
This section is more useful for all those , who are trying hard to maintain some kind of digital fasting , which is nothing but signing of from digital communication from regular interval of time .
More from engineering back ground , I always feel comfortable in addressing a challenge with the help of a equation , so my equation goes like this .
Digital Fasting = Digital Detox + Digital Lock down
so let us try to understand above mentioned equation , which may help you to practice digital fasting .
What are the challenges which one face in practicing digital fasting . As we mentioned it is some time a habit that after every few seconds your eyes goes on the mobile to see " FOMO " which is called as fear of missing out . so here is the point , what is the which you feel you are missing out , actually if you analyse you will find 90 percent of the time , there is nothing which you are missing so you need to prepare and condition your brain in such a way that there is nothing great , which you are going to miss even if you are offline .
Opportunity cost - time which you unnecessary spends on various digital platforms just to see what others are doing , what others are saying , unnecessary discussion or debates , as if we take the example of current lock down which is announced in various parts of the world , because of pandemic, caused by n covid -19 corona virus which has unfortunately shook the world and brings everything in a standstill situation , so people are just online , because of work from home or people are so much addicted to the digital world , that even if they are getting this opportunity to spend time with family , spend time with themselves , but they are hooked to digital social media platforms performing various challenges some times those challenges posted by their friends just have no sense .
Hit the bulls eye - Find out the way you have put discipline in your time so the important point here is if you are not discipline in your day to day life , you will surely find it difficult to maintain that discipline in social platforms also. Like Digital fasting is not that you do not check social platforms , it is required to be connected for some important reasons, some time but you should know how much time you are devoting to online activities .
So Practice following
First step is digital detox
Digital Detox - 6-8 hours of your day ,of course other than your sleeping hours you decide no social media interaction and you will put more time on your professional or personal goals. Just keep mobile phone out of your range or any other device out of your range , devote this time with family , fitness ,cooking , working on your passion or any other things which you feel good about it . No checking status , no checking of Facebook walls , no Instagram feeds (period).
If you can practice step -1 , you should pat yourself for social media discipline and by the way you achieve digital fasting .
Second step is digital lock down
Just decide one or two days in a week , where you just lock down , your social media interactions ( of course if need doesn't exists , which normally is not there ). if you decide you can do it you can do it . It is basically how you condition your brain , if you condition in your brain you can surely achieve this .
so here if you get this equation right you can evaluate yourself
Digital Fasting = Digital Detox + Digital lock down
3) Evaluation goals
First week , just see that how good are you in detox and lock down , if you can practiced extended detox and limited lock down that is also good enough , so i suggest that you put weights on both i.e. digital fasting and digital lock down . if you get those weights right , believe me you will find it so worth and satisfying and it will surely gives you more time for your own self , your fitness , your family and other important aspect. ( further detail on this in my video lecture )
Regards,
Dr Ankush Sharma
4th April 2020
