A Facebook `like' can cheer you up. A Twitter comment can enrage you. An Instagram picture can make you go green and Whatsapp chats can turn nasty. How can we unshackle ourselves from these new stresses?
Do you worry about giving up your smartphone? Is your virtual self tak ing over your real
self? Are you more interested in what's happening online than in your house? Do you
struggle to recall your last good face-to-face chat? If you answered yes to any one question, then you are a digital slave or turning into one.
Technology, it's said, makes your life simpler. Instead, we have allowed it to bring in new stresses. Added to the stresses of buying a home, getting good grades, getting promoted, health issues, are the new stresses of our times: How many `likes' did I get? let's take a selfie; why am I not travelling the world? Why hasn't heshe started `following' me? How do I get my mind off trolls? Peo ple, in fact, have sought psychological help because of online abuse. Things are getting worse every day. How does one get relief from these new pressures? There are ways to help yourself...
FACE-TO-FACE
You know the feeling: you want to speak to your close friend and there's a lot to catch up on. But the thought of calling seems like a chore after a long day. Get over it. Schedule a quick coffee meet-up. You won't regret it. In fact, if you stop meeting people faceto-face thinking you are `connected', you may get a rude jolt when you do need them. Swapnil Kamat, CEO of Work Better agrees, “Digital connectivity cannot replace physical connectivity. There's nothing better than personal face-to-face talk. You cannot rely on the social media to replace personal interactions."
GET AWAY FROM THAT SMARTPHONE
Your smartphone is not making you smarter. Kanika Khandelwal Ahuja, professor of Sociology at Lady Shri Ram College says, “Kids are chained to their phones these days. It's obvious that they've picked this up from watching adults. It's becoming tough to separate people from their smartphones, ultimately, impacting our everyday behaviour and conversations.“
Social media commentator Chetan Deshpande feels we are a mobile zombie generation. “Staring at our phones 24x7 has given rise to unpredictable behaviours cybersickness, Facebook de pression and internet addiction disorder.“
SEPARATE VIRTUAL YOU FROM REAL YOU
You are always tired because your phone takes up your head space. You have no patience to deal with real people problems anymore.
All the fight and irritation comes out on your posts. Adds Deshpande, “Mobile addicts have forgotten how to have real conversations. They find it easier to converse through text messages. They are simply lost in their own `me-myself' world, where they are just posting their observations and opinions.“ Psycholo gists have started warning about the rise of an `online disinhibition ef fect' where normally polite people sling insults unabashedly when commenting.
Sociologist Amrit Bhasin says, “The Digital Generation will witness a rise in abnormalities 30 years from now. If you are spending more than seven hours a day on your iPads, computers or smartphones, the social impact on the brain will be damaging. It will lead to the breakdown of cognitive abilities and be equal to having a severe head injury.“
RELEARN TO DO ONE THING AT A TIME
All over the world, psychologists are talking about the failure of multi-tasking. Bhasin says, “It's not human to do everything, think everything, and perform at hisher best all the time.“ Psychologist Dheeraj Sachdeva believes our over-dependence on technology is changing our brain's chemical reactions.“We've become an irritable, impatient, narcissistic generation, and will see far more cases of digital strokes (when the brain starts forgetting information with too much technological dependence),“ he warns.
What can be the solution? Deshpande says, “To be pragmatic, gadgets, per se, aren't bad; it's our overdependence on them that's harmful. It has become imperative to incorporate cyber mindfulness (being aware of your online activites and your digital behaviour) in our lives. We must consciously choose to disconnect, for some time at least, as a daily ritual.“
HOW I DID IT...
“Why I indulge in regular digital detoxes“
(Longest period without a cellphone: 6 months)
WHY:
My mind was getting dis tracted with social media apps I went to sleep and woke up staring at my phone. It was ruining my eyesight and controlling my life.
And it's not just work, it's the del uge of technology coming at you: information, emails, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...
HOW IT HELPED TO SWITCH OFF:
Earlier, there was a lethargy setting in where I was glued to my phone randomly checking people's posts. It was liberating to not be `always' reachable. I was not a slave to every ring, buzz, and beep any longer. I could relax. I was happier.
DIGITAL AILMENTS...
You have nomophobia if you get anxiety attack the moment the battery of your phone dies.
You have cyberchondria if you compulsively search the internet for information about real or imagined symptoms of illnesses.
You have phantom vibration syndrome if you experience that familiar vibration of the phone ringing but it is not ringing.
You have online disinhibition effect if you unabashedly abuse people online and troll them.
You are a digital goldfish if you have to update and post everything online.
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