Why going cold turkey with a digital detox is unlikely to be successful (Podcast Episode)

If one of your resolutions is to spend less time on your phone, or looking at screens, then you are in the right place, because in this episode we will look at digital detoxes and how you can implement them. 

To do this, we are speaking with Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida. 

In this episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we discuss what a digital detox is, what technology it usually involves, how a digital detox can be realistically implemented without it negatively impacting our work or social connections, and the parallels between digital detoxes and food diets. 

Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Listen Notes, PodBean, and Radio Public.

Selepak shares why going cold turkey with a digital detox is unlikely to be successful, why vacations are a good setting to implement a partial digital detox, and why turning off notifications and removing social media apps is the best way to start a detox. 

He also explains why our use of technology shouldn’t be seen necessarily as an addiction, like a drug, but a tool that needs to be used the correct way.

Additionally, Selepak shares how a non-self imposed detox from his phone during a trip in Ireland taught him the importance of disconnecting, and how many of us fall into the trap of taking numerous pictures on holiday, with the ambition of posting on social media, instead of experiencing the trip in the present moment.

And finally, we discuss the role meditation can play to help limit our time with technology.