Recently I wrote a blog about the surprise benefit of unplugging from my phone for a few hours. Since then, I have learned some additional benefits such as better rest, less anxiety, and oddly, less snacking. Apparently, I tended to eat when obsessively hitting refresh on Twitter to make sure I haven’t missed any celebrity deaths.
Other important lessons:
- FOMO is a real thing. No, it’s nothing like YOLO. Fear of Missing Out is what I discovered in my enlightenment blog after leaving my phone at home. I was afraid I’d miss things by not being connected to everything. More importantly, I’d convinced myself that I would be missed. If I wasn’t responding, retweeting, liking, answering, commenting… the world would explode. Clearly, since I’m here writing this follow up, it did not. It’s a jolt our egos need once in a while.
- Be bored. We never take time to appreciate the sensation of boredom. First of all, much like a muscle, your brain needs to rest after being stimulated in order to optimize its strength. Plus, being bored allows our minds to wander and our creativity kicks in. Creating instead of consuming can only yield positive results.
- Our most fulfilling relationships are the ones that are physically in front of us. I’ll just leave that right there.
And the most important thing I’ve learned is how important it is to model unplugging for your kids. Being <cough> years old, I remember the days before smart phones and tablets. Heck, I remember the days before pagers. So, I know what it’s like to live a life unplugged.
My kids, on the other hand, don’t. And that’s sad.
So I decided to implement my self-enforced unplugged time on the rest of the family: one hour, every day, no phones, no computers, no tablets, no television. Additionally, no electronics at the dinner table. This was met with mixed results. To be honest, this was met with full-on melt-downs. From kids and husband alike. So we compromised. We are doing a trial period of a month.
They say you only understand an addiction when you’ve taken it away. We’ll see how this experiment goes and I’ll keep you posted.
Cricket Media Mama may be blogging a lot more frequently as her ban on electronics has resulted in her ban from the good graces of her family.
