week 24 - Why a digital detox is bad for all of us

These days it’s tempting to ignore the news entirely, says Ruth Whippman. But it’s essential that we stay fully engaged. 

The “digital detox”. It’s the new juice cleanse. In the age of constant connectivity it’s now our minds rather than our bodies that need urgent purification. According to Ofcom, the average adult internet user spends more than 20 hours a week online.
 Our smartphones have become tiny iron lungs, our dependence on them so total that we now can’t finish dinner or even a sentence without checking our email. 

Mention the word “election” on Facebook in the morning and by lunchtime you’re estranged from your entire family. It’s hardly surprising that it has become standard “wellbeing” advice that we should switch off entirely.

If the news makes us anxious, there’s a reason for that, and we would do well to listen carefully to what that anxiety is telling us and do everything in our power to keep reading. If the soul-sucking digital drudge of the smartphone is making you sick, then buy the paper version of the newspaper instead. If constant connectivity is stressing you out, then set aside a time each day to read the news and switch off the rest of the time. 

Channel your anxiety into activism. Volunteer, protest, donate. Read the news in a forest, or in tree-pose. Set whatever boundaries you need to. But whatever you do, don’t switch off. Everyone’s wellbeing depends on it.