Is your screen stressing you out? Social media can often start to wear away at our wellbeing – and with screen time making up more and more of our lives, it can feel inescapable. 

Taking a break from social media and everything our phones throw at us can be difficult, but you may find that having a digital detox once in a while leaves you feeling lighter and readier to take on the world. 

Take care of your self-worth 

In the digital world, it always feels like we are comparing ourselves to others, giving us constant reminders about the things we don’t have. Taking a digital detox can help us recognise and remember all the things in our lives we should be grateful for. 

Instead of scrolling through social media and comparing yourself to others, why don’t you practice journaling? Every day, you could write down three things you are grateful for, or write or draw about something which brought you joy. 

Get your time back

Whether scrolling through the internet or on social media apps, you can often find yourself sitting there for hours on end, and eating up hours of valuable time. Setting your phone aside can help you get back the time to be more productive and do activities which bring you joy. 

Most phones and tablets now have apps that tell us how much time we spend on our phones and how much time we spend on social media. Knowing how much time you spend on your phone may motivate you to limit your screen time. The ‘do not disturb’ feature, which is pre-installed on most smartphones, can also help. Enabling it  reduces the number of notifications you receive during the day, which can be useful if you find yourself unable to disconnect from your phone. 

Instead of surfing the internet, why don’t you turn on the do not disturb feature and plan in some gentle movement, go to a place that makes you happy, or organise an activity with a friend. Connect in real life. 

Set clear boundaries 

Now that we all carry our phones and are available 24/7 for people to contact, it can be hard to get time to ourselves. Especially if there’s a lot of stressful things happening in work or relationships, we can find ourselves constantly checking our phones, or being interrupted by messages and notifications. 

A huge part of avoiding a stress spiral is making time to step away from things that can stress us. Just because you can be contacted at any time, doesn’t mean you should. 

Set clear expectations and boundaries with people in your life (eg ‘I will not answer work calls between 5pm and 9am’). Get comfortable with telling people you’ll get back to them later. You could even set a status or automatic reply on messaging apps saying you’re checking your messages at a certain time each day, and will not reply to anything until then. 

When you’re taking time away from your phone, it’s ok to turn it off, put it on mute, or set it to airplane mode so nobody can reach you. Try to schedule in dedicated time with the people who are important to you, instead of having all your conversations through 24/7 messaging.

End the doomscroll 

‘Doomscrolling’, or spending hours on social media or news apps seeking out things that make you despairing or angry, is also a huge risk. Social media is designed to keep you engaged, and often the way it does that is to tap into your outrage. Sometimes it feels like something you have to do to be a good and engaged person – but that isn’t true. Ask yourself whether you’re actually engaging with the world, or pushing yourself into a place where you’re less able to take action or reach out. 

If you’re afraid of missing important news, you can use tools like Google or many news apps to set up a personalised email bulletin around topics you’re worried about. That way, you can keep your news to once a day or once a week, and ignore it the rest of the time. 

Sleep better 

We know the impact sleep can have on our mental health. Screen time before bed can delay the release of melatonin – our bodies naturally produce melatonin, which is the hormone that helps us fall asleep. Spending more time in bed with a screen in front of you can often lead to less restful sleep, which usually results in increased next-day sleepiness and can impact your productivity.  

Stress also stops us sleeping – and checking emails in bed or reading the news can give you a hefty jolt of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, right when you most need to rest. Taking a full digital detox or at least setting boundaries around bedtime can help our bodies get a well-deserved rest.  
  
Before you go to bed tonight, why don’t you leave your phone on the other side of the room and read a book instead? Reading before bed can improve your quality of sleep and reduce stress levels, and it helps you wind down without getting wound up by doomscrolling.