Digital Detox Analysis in COVID-19 era
One of the most important places where we can socialize digitally outside of normal life is the platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. With the pandemic period, most of our social habits changed or had to change. Consequently, the places where we socialize digitally have increased in importance.
On December 31, 2020, around 23:15, I was struggling with questions and answers about the new year. With the arrival of a new year, new page impulses occur in people. I also had in mind “Digital Detox”, an action that has been around for a long time but I haven’t done.
With the pandemic, I was spending 30–40% of my day on the weekends with posts from some content creators that drew my attention on social media. I cannot say this is wrong or right. There have been things that he has contributed or taken away from me. But is this the same for everyone? Everyone should criticize it themselves. I felt tired about reading and watching things from devices such as phones / computers. I noticed that psychologically it especially affected me a lot.
Things that affect me?
- Breaking news: As you can see in the flow above, it is not possible for me to stay away from the current agenda due to the pages I follow. However, as the breaking news that comes on my home page, suddenly seeing them impresses me too.
- Contents with a longing for the past: I always have a longing for the past. This is about my personality. Content pages about the past also abound in my Instagram feed. When I come across them, they can make me experience various emotions such as longing, happiness or sadness. Psychologically, I can say that is the most challenging topic for me.
- Social incidents: Socially initiated campaigns, oppositions or supports about the event happening at one end of the world on social media … Seeing these also leads to deep traces and thoughts.
- The “Classy” accounts: These accounts, which I follow with love, reflect both the past and the “Classy” lifestyle. It is very difficult for me to describe the sudden changes in emotion it aroused in me. This is the second of the most challenging topics for me.
Action plan
I thought to myself that cutting them for a certain period of time would be good for my body and my psychology. As of January 2021, I have decided to leave Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Instagram for a period of 3 months. With this sudden decision, I deleted all applications from my phone without taking backups or doing any pre-action.
- First week: It was the most difficult process I had. My hand is going somewhere, I realized that I felt the need to examine a stream, to see various news suddenly.
- Second week: The process just got more difficult. There was a feeling of falling into the void. Since I did not watch also TV, I wanted to somehow fulfill my need for news / streaming during this process. I spent more time reading technical articles, playing games (Mobile Pubg, Counter Strike 1.5, Age of Empires), researching and reading about my hobbies.
- 50th day: 50th day: The process somehow passed. I can say that the difficulties I experienced have disappeared. I started watching content on YouTube. I decided that doing this was not going to affect part of my process. My YouTube addiction didn’t exist before I started this process.
- 70th day: I realized that I am really satisfied with the progress of the process. I did not have a headache as often as before. I attributed this to a decrease in looking at the screen and a slowdown in sudden emotional changes.
- 75th day: I gave up completing 90 days. I closed the process with 75 days. There was a sudden travel situation. I completed the process early as I wanted to share this process. I thought I had completed the state of achieving the goal internally.
As the first awareness when I came back to social media, the story part struck me. I said to my own, “What’s this got to do with me?”. I had the impression that it was unnecessary.
I use social media less now than before. I think this detox adds a lot to my body psychologically. At least in my hobbies and technical sense, I have reached saturation as an inner pleasure, as I have devoted more time to myself.
I will repeat this experience from time to time. I can’t wait to share…
Account URLs of Instagram Posts :
https://www.instagram.com/dwnews/
https://www.instagram.com/oldlaikdays/
https://www.instagram.com/nytimes/
https://www.instagram.com/chinaxinhuanews/
