I did a digital declutter!

Some of you noticed my absence from the forum for a little while. I think there was even mention of some conspiracy theories about alter egos. But the real reason I haven’t been active is because for the past two weeks I drastically reduced my use of all but the most necessary technological functions on my phone and computer.

The rules were: I couldn’t check any social media/forums throughout the day, and instead had a 15-minute period of time to check everything after dinner, and that’s only if I had a lot of notifications piling up. Otherwise I only used my phone for calling, messaging, taking photos, listening to music on Spotify, and GPS. I limited internet browsing to email, looking up information I needed, and briefly checking the major headlines every few days.

During this time I 1) read two books, 2) was much more productive overall, 3) cooked more meals at home, and 4) slept better and kept more normal hours. I also felt less anxious in general, and like I had oodles of time every day to do everything I needed or wanted to do. I spent more time alone with my thoughts and journaling and looking at the things around me and doodling them.

I was also able to begin to reprogram my brain to appreciate the real human body because I was not being constantly bombarded by images of people that are not truthful representations of the way the majority of people actually look. Models and celebrities online almost always airbrush their skin and alter their body shape digitally and/or surgically. Even though I was aware of this, my brain still internalized the images as the new normal. But after I removed Kardashian-style bodies from view and only saw (mostly) natural bodies walking around me for two weeks, I was able to “see” people accurately again. I would say that this probably had the most remarkable effect on my everyday mood and mental health.

Most importantly, I have broken my habit of reaching for my phone during idle moments and just wasting time looking at the same things over and over again. Now I only reach for it when I have a specific goal in mind (check this, respond to that, read the news, make plans with a friend, post a photo). I realized I lost hours of productivity a day absentmindedly scrolling, and after getting those hours back, I never want to lose them again.

A few days before doing the declutter, I purged hundreds of people from my “following” lists that I no longer cared about, never cared about to begin with, or haven’t spoken to in over a year, and now I follow almost no strangers aside from some artists and writers. It has made social media feel much more intimate and positive, like a small house filled only with my friends and family and a couple of people I aspire to be like, instead of like a big noisy lobby that is crowded with photoshopped people and content that I just don’t give a shit about. So I recommend doing that, too.

Overall, I have a much better idea now of what I want out of my internet/social connectivity and I’m more aware of the ways in which it can drain time. I think all of us could benefit from “digital decluttering”, even those of you who, like me, don’t think you really have that much of a problem with your online habits. I still learned a lot about the effect it has on my life and state of mind.

I did miss looking at memes and bird videos, though. And I guess I kind of missed this dump.

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Good for you.
I don’t even know you, but I missed reading your posts.

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36 posts were split to a new topic: Off topic from declutter

can you tell us the time you view Forumosa so we can target good things to say about you, and then make up stories/conspiracies the other times you don’t view the site?

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I view Forumosa during the times when I am not tracking down dirty sexpats vigilante-style.

image

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Good for you for the declutter. I kinda want to do the same, but only kinda.

I was hesitant too, but it was actually quite painless. The most tempting times for me were when I was commuting, and before going to sleep/trying to wake up in the morning. I was really used to using my phone in bed because it’s what I use as an alarm clock. I ended up switching to a traditional alarm clock and the lack of screen time before bed is almost definitely what improved my quality of sleep.

I think that’s the most important for me right now. My sleep hasnt been great now for a while and I’m sure my phone doesn’t help. I’ll prob have to limit it to a timed Spotify or some rain/whale/beach sounds or whatever lol.

Whatever you do, don’t look at the screen. It’s true what they say about having no screen time a few hours before bed. Your brain needs to know for sure that it’s night time, and screens trick it into believing it isn’t.

why even live, then?

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Well, it turns out just a few minutes of consuming memes and bird videos a day is all you really need to get by.

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Good for you @Hanna ! A few years ago I started taking a 1 to 2 month “vacation” every year from Facebook. It’s difficult for the first day or two, then gradually you discover all the time you’ve been wasting, and the things in life you’ve been neglecting. Feels great, right?

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It’s healthy to disconnect every once in a while. Humans aren’t really designed to handle this much stimuli all the time.

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Good for you, @Hanna.

I used to work with big IT projects, so screen time dominated about half the day every day. Then I’d come home and of course more screen time. Did not work at all. I don’t think humans were meant to be happy that way, super bad diet for me.

Good luck.

Also the development of email and social media have changed the expectations that we place on each other in terms of what is an acceptable service time or response time.
I get so frazzled dealing with customers on LINE, whatsapp etc. That sometimes I need to dial it all back a bit. That’s when I begin to feel a generational difference with the world around me. Just old fashioned, I guess.

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Yep. I’m old and when I started working, way way back, if you did any work after working hours you got paid time-and-a-half for it. Tens of millions of us old geezers worked that way for the first 30-20 years of our work lives, and we got pretty used to it.

In the new millennium the line has blurred, though, and old attitudes like mine just get in the way of modern work. You know it’s time to step out of the corporate world when you refuse to pick up your phone after 10pm and realize that you’re almost the only one who feels that way.

I think screens are much harder on us old people, but I don’t think they’re much good for anybody. Good thing younger workers grew up on screen time. I don’t think working would work for them otherwise, not in 2019.

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I’m happy for you @Hanna

I did the same while I was in college, for at least 6 months (it was about two years ago now). It was when I decided to finally delete all of my social media… reasons? I found that I did not care for “catching up” with people’s lives but practically living them. Too much information online, sometimes not enough in real life, and all the anxiety that comes with it. All of that for something very non-essential.

Even today, I have a strong disdain for it and have been using my time for more important and useful things.

Highly suggest others to do the same. Right after I did it, I tried getting my friends to try (to no avail) so I’ll take this chance to pester an online community.

I completely abandoned facebook several years ago and it was one of the best choices I could’ve made for my sanity. I’m still a regular user of a couple of other major social media sites, but I’ve got a better grasp on how to use them effectively after spending a couple weeks away.

The main thing I learned is it really only takes a few minutes of scrolling through to catch up with everything you care about reading or viewing. Like a half hour at most. The rest is just junk.

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