What’s digital detox or how to lead a healthy techno-social lifestyle?

Despite the great number of bad habits any adult is guilty of, society in general seems to be gravitating towards a healthier lifestyle. We are realizing that living a healthy life is enjoyable and makes us feel good, and we are revising our diets and schedules to leave space for active rest and sports. But few of us give any thought to another component of a healthy lifestyle – one that is as important for our physical as it is for our psychological well-being. Let’s talk about it below.

You are what you eat

What are your eating habits? Do you make every effort to do it right, or do you just fill up on food without thinking about health consequences? On the one hand, it might be challenging to resist temptation with fast food advertised all around. On the other hand, we are free to choose between our own health and the financial well-being of those selling us junk food. The same applies to the digital junk food we often fill up on.

Why is it so difficult for us to give up digital fast food?

Most likely because we haven’t seriously considered the risks yet. A full, healthy life is impossible without a fair amount of consideration. You must think about your diet and exercise if you want to eat right and stay in shape. You should think about your mental and psychological well-being in the same way. We suggest analyzing your daily digital diet right now to see how it contributes to maintaining your intellectual health, growing and perfecting your skills, and expanding the boundaries of your worldview.

What does the right digital diet look like?

There is nothing complicated about it. We can extend the analogy with nutrition. If you are clear on the concept of healthy nutrition, making the right choices in terms of healthy “food” for your mind shouldn’t be difficult at all.

Obviously, eating healthy food in excessive quantities 24 hours a day will not improve your health. Therefore, the first rule of a healthy digital diet is moderation. Don’t fill up on information nonstop. Instead, set aside two or three intervals during the day that will be dedicated to checking your email and studying useful articles that will help you grow.

Any attempts to observe moderation will inevitably cause you to filter your digital streams, eliminating unnecessary information. Selectivity is the second rule of healthy digital nutrition. As it turns out, to stay abreast of major world events, you don’t need to monitor a bunch of news sites. You only need a couple of good resources. As for the news feeds in social networks, you don’t really need about 95 percent of that information and can give it up without any doubts.
When we eat healthily, we understand the roles certain nutrients play in our body. Food should be tasty, nutritious, and healthy. Usefulness is the third rule of healthy digital nutrition. Reading a popular scientific article is more useful for your brain than surfing your friends’ Instagram accounts – as well as those of the people you don’t know. When you dedicate your valuable time to surfing the Internet and interacting with a gadget, make sure you’re not wasting it. Choose only what you really need and are interested in – things that are truly valuable.

Finally, the last rule is consistency. A healthy diet is not meant to be temporary. You must stick to the rules every day rather than occasionally; otherwise, it will turn into a crash diet that is followed by a relapse. This approach would be similar to a type of alcoholism, where periods of sobriety alternate with binge drinking.

This is why having unplugged days and holidays without any gadgets is never going to bring the desired effect. As a rule, you will compensate for this digital abstinence by filling up on whatever you’ve missed until your eyes are popping out. It’s important to remember that there should be no strict taboos. Otherwise, the forbidden fruit will always be the most tempting. Even in healthy diets, you can sometimes indulge in French fries, pizza, or cupcakes. The most important thing is to make these little indulgences occasional rather than regular. The same goes for digital nutrition: you can indulge in some digital junk food, but always in moderation.
Free yourself from technological addiction!

We certainly need modern technologies and new scientific achievements. Giving them up altogether would be unwise. However, it’s important to remember that their purpose is to make our life easier, not to fill it with loads of totally useless and unnecessary information. By consuming terabytes of informational trash, we tend to lose sight of that. At the same time, when we control our information consumption, we gain more freedom. You should always remember that.

Another practice that can help cleanse your brain of technological toxins is meditation. This is a great way to reboot, drop the ballast, and move on feeling incredibly light.