Digital Detox?
14th March 2020
Before Christmas I met up with family to go skating at Somerset House – which was a wonderful start to the holiday season and two holiday weeks away from home. Between there and going back on the train and bus to my brother’s home for some supper, my phone disappeared…. And so began my enforced Christmas digital detox.
We tried to locate it using ‘find my phone’, but to no avail – it had already been switched off. I disabled everything I could. But, I couldn’t remember my password to my Apple ID, and so, having tried several times, was locked out of my account until the help services could get in touch with me. I was told by auto-generated email that this would take 3 working days – which would take us to Christmas Eve, and my account was protected until then.
The next day the phone shop were brilliant, immediately giving me a replacement SIM card but, alas, I had no phone in which to put it. Assuming the phone was stolen, I was very kindly given a phone for Christmas, and was excited to think I would be back operational in a couple of days, once the account was unlocked.
I hadn’t realised how reliant I was on my gadget until this point. I hadn’t brought an Ipad or a laptop, because I can do everything on my phone I need to over a holiday period.
And then I received the email from Apple which said that I would be contacted on January 3rd regarding my Apple ID password, so that the process of verification could take place, during working hours. 2 whole weeks away! No access to a gadget in that time!! Suddenly, I couldn’t keep checking my bank balance, vital at this point of the year! Or send whatsapp messages to friends and family.
So, I had to borrow others’ devices in order to check anything at all, which involved lots of extra verification and was a pain for all involved. I couldn’t remember the individual passwords for my various email accounts in order to get into them. I hoped that friends wouldn’t think me awful for not sending ‘Merry Christmas’ whatsapps. And so, I had to accept the situation.
I realised the extent of my digital addiction with the anxious feelings linked to disconnection that welled up from time to time – but these wore off as the two weeks went on. It was a really relaxing period and changed my relationship with my phone extremely positively. Since Christmas, I have been religious about charging it in the office rather than the bedroom, and getting up and on in the morning more mindfully, without first checking into electronics and disrupting my brain. Until the last few days of this week.
With the current anxiety surrounding COVID-19 and the preparations being made as a leadership team to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all in our care, I’m finding myself sucked in again, checking in immediately first thing, and it crept back into the bedroom without me even noticing – however, at least I did this morning. The underlying anxiety levels around me are rising. Is it the unprecedented situation we are dealing with, or is it also a function of relying on, and being sucked into, my device more? At least I’ve realised what is happening so I can do something about it. We’re potentially about to have all our young people learning remotely on their devices, preparing for their examinations in relative (if not digital) isolation. We’ll need to keep educating and reminding ourselves about digital addiction, so that we self-regulate properly….