I know I’ve been a bit MIA lately, but you know…life happens! (Although I hear that Tals made a guest appearance?! Sneaky dog!) As I previously mentioned, I spent Christmas at my parents’ mountain home with my family and followed that up with a NYE trip to Park City with some of my fellow Omniten. Naturally, I’ll share those stories with you later this week, but I wanted to spend today touching on a topic I heard about on Dateline last night: a digital diet.
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| We’re not talking about this type of diet! |
I’m not a regular watcher of the program, but I had originally thought the season premier of Biggest Loser started at 7pm. Alas, I had to wait till 8pm to catch up with Jillian and her gang, but the plot behind the Dateline episode totally caught my attention. In essence, the show featured four female 20-somethings who are self-admittedly obsessed with social media and their smart phones. Datelines took away their phones and their laptops, locking them away for two weeks. They were allowed to check email for work, but that was it. No additional email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, checking news online, etc. Nothing.
Initially, I was a bit disgusted with some of the girls and one in particular. During their “final moments” with their technology, one of the gals panicked and spent her last seconds sending out tweets and Instagram photos. One girl even said that she felt like she was going to her death. For two weeks? Come on, girls! They even got lost while driving in the mountains but since they couldn’t use their phones for navigation, they had to bust out legit maps….and they had no idea how to work them. They finally asked for directions; how old school! 😉
However, the more I watched the episode, the more I began to think about it. After all, I am pretty dialed into the social media world myself! I’m on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and I have a blog…. that is more than most people out there. Most of my friends (along with Will!) are the opposite of me and tend to shy away from any social media platforms, so I’m a bit of an anomaly. Luckily, I don’t consider myself obsessed. I am happy to shut my phone off for a week in the backcountry, and I will never, ever ignore a conversation to focus on the beeps from my phone.
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| I’m always happy to take the time to play with Tals! |
Regardless, I did decide to make a few changes after watching the show. Because I was grandfathered into my AT&T data plan, I have unlimited data. As such, I receive push notifications for all of my Twitter, IG, and Facebook stuff. Until yesterday, these all popped up onto the lock screen of my phone so I could see any or all of them by just glancing at my phone. Y’all, that is absurd and totally unnecessary for me. I changed the notifications, so now they only pop up when I look at each individual platform on my phone. Now, I won’t have any pesky pop-up banners that will distract me from living in the moment. May seem like a little thing, but I already think it’s making a big difference!
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Social media is great but like anything, too much of a good thing is bad. I could remove myself from it all for quite a while and would love it (except my GPS, I’m directionally inept). I’m more of a 30 second updater than someone who hangs out on it. I just use those platforms to meet/motivate people to meet me in person. And I don’t want to sound sexist but it seems like women are worse than guys about it, maybe because girls are much more social than guys? Anyway, nothing annoys me more though, than someone pulling out the cell to check something that can wait when I’m sitting right there, having a conversation. Alright I’m done ranting.
Honestly I just think it is like everything else, if it effects people who surround you it is too much. So if being dialed in hinders your family and friend relationships…time to scrap it! if not…tweet on…
Ugh. I struggle with this so much. I’m actually thinking of designating a day (or at least almost an entire day) where I don’t use my phone AT ALL. I’m on it 24/7 – I can’t even relax in bed or on the couch with tv without constantly checking it!
I think I could ditch being connected for two weeks, but I think I’d need to be somewhere quiet and free of the temptation to check in. If you asked me to quit social media for two weeks, but gave me a computer with internet access, I may not have the willpower to resist!
For example, when we were in Havasu Falls, I was happy my phone was completely dead for three days. I couldn’t check anything, even if I wanted to. While I was home for Christmas this year, I didn’t spend much time on Twitter or Facebook, and it was so nice and…quiet! I miss that quiet, and miss feeling like I’m going to miss something if I’m not checking in every day. I don’t even remember life before I could just text someone. Yikes!
I think a little detox once in a while couldn’t hurt most of us, especially me. I might start by getting an actual alarm clock so the phone isn’t by my bed all night.
I think our society as a whole has become way too plugged in. I get so annoyed when out with friends and they’re checking their phones and texting constantly. I find it so rude but realize that they don’t. Not at all. I’ve tried really hard to disconnect much more often. That means no blogging on the weekends and it’s been so refreshing.
I would have loved to see that show! Very interesting–did they end up liking their time away?
I have gone a week at a time w/ no outside communication at all. We take a trip each summer to a place where there is no connectivity. And I LOVE it. I don’t miss it a beat. Once I’m back in the real world, of course I want to reconnect, but those trips make me wish my kids were growing up in a world like I did–without all that stuff!
They said they did but they immediately fell back into their old habits the second they got their phones 🙂 The interviewer had to force them to shut them off because they were so distracted by them!
I saw that last night too and was disgusted with them as well, they couldn’t even have a conversation or navigate a map. Makes me glad I don’t have a smart phone just having a computer can be enough of a distraction!
I don’t have push notifications for anything on my phone and I can honestly say that I’d have no problem leaving behind all of technology for weeks at a time. If it were up to me I’d spend the entire summer on the farm with the dogs and free of social media.
Of course when I’m out in the middle of nowhere I involuntarily unplug and I love it. So relaxing 🙂 But I have also gone unplugged/screen free for a day at a time while just at home. And just that honestly felt like a lot (which in my opinion indicates a big problem!). I’ve also downgraded my phone permanently after years of having a smart phone. At first that was all panic, but now it’s kind of nice. I actually use regular maps again, lol. It’s so easy to flip open the laptop while doing ANYTHING at home. And when you’re out and about or bored, just grab your phone and the “world” is at your fingertips. I think a “digital diet” is great for everyone though. Learn how to have a conversation with people again and actually see the world around you. On another note, I need to pull up that episode and watch it. Sounds interesting.
I don’t mind either way. Also, the older you get, the faster two weeks flies by.
I consider myself pretty plugged in with my involvement, but it entertains my talkative tendency. And I blog because not only is it fun to look back on, but unlike the privacy of a journal, putting my stories out there is a way to inspire others to seek enjoyment in life, love to their fullest capability, and laugh through the crappy things.
I was talking to my younger cousin about dating and she didn’t know how we communicated with guys in awkward situations before texting. I was blown away!!
I too saw that Dateline special and felt a little sick watching but also realized I’m attached to my phone as well. I think unplugging needs to happen every day for me. And, tell Tals, Cooper thought she wrote an excellent post!
I’m ashamed to admit that I’m pretty much attached to my phone at all times and would have major anxiety being away from it for two weeks. Crazy because I’ve only even had a real smart phone for a year! But, in my defense I really did unplug during my week with my family at Christmas and a large part of my phone use is constantly texting my mom and my sister. There’s good and bad to everything – due to FaceTime, my 5 month old newphew can learn who I am even though I live hundreds of miles away, and I won’t name names but certain people in my family are just awkward in conversation and express themselves much better in written form, therefore a Web 2.0 relationship is perfect! I am very glad that I finished dating before Facebook and got married before Pinterest though. As usual an unnecessarily long comment from me.
I feel like this sometimes! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to make better use of my time and a big part of this is not staring at my phone all the time! It’s such a hard habit to break though!
here the rule is the moment the husband gets home—I UNPLUG.
Ive lost work (twitter chats etc) I DONT CARE 🙂
Ironic since this was a topic of discussion in SLC. Every time I’m away from my phone due to vacation in remote/foreign areas I feel free and once I come back to reality it often feels so overwhelming. I go through waves of being attached and then unplugged. I’ve been meaning to make a conscious effort to unplug more. I don’t make resolutions but maybe this is the closest I’ll get to one.
I have cut back a lot over the past few weeks, got rid of all push notifications and cut the number of blogs in my gReader, trimmed my Twitter lists, Facebook and g+ streams and guess what I found that I had more to time to write, read books and enjoy conversations with TheWife. I wrote a couple posts on this and I plan to keep simplifying my online presence and look for more quality in my interactions, instead of so much focus on quantity.
Ooh, I wish I would have seen that special! I love Dateline lol
I’m probably addicted to my technology, but I agree – I hate pop ups on my phone in all form! The only one that still pops up is Facebook, and that’s just because I can’t stinking figure out how to turn it off! haha
I saw that special too and thought Oh! I need this! I try to stay away from it more and more, but definitely check Instagram and Facebook WAY more than I should. I would be embarrassed to admit how many times a day… Luckily I haven’t gotten sucked into Twitter.
I started swapping tv for reading, but man- I can’t help but get sucked into The Biggest Loser and a few other shows. But, I’m planning on recording them and then catching up later on the weekend and maybe in bits and pieces. I’m really trying to READ in the evenings now and have full days where the tv hasn’t even been turned on.
I have my settings the same way! No notifications unless I open the app. Mine is due to battery life (having all those apps constantly running drains my phone faster than I can snap my fingers!) But it is really nice to only see updates when I’m looking for them.
I’ve also scaled back my ‘at home’ computer time recently too. I will write my blog post and put my computer away. More quality time with Alex and to read!