grew up in a tough love kind of household. My mother is an angel and was an absolute corker of a parent but she took zero crap from my bother and I. If I chucked a whopping tantrum, I’d be left alone in my room to sulk until I was ready to sheepishly join the family again. If I didn’t like something my mum served for dinner, there certainly wasn’t an alternative. If a boy broke my heart, I was allowed to sob into her lap for 24 hours but the next day was ‘Come on! Chin up – let’s get on with it.’
As a result I’m a pretty resilient adult but it’s also made me a touch judgemental. I’m a part of a few health and wellness groups for various different diet regimes and sometimes the people in these groups astound me.
‘I’ve read through the breakfasts for the weight loss program but I don’t like oats, tuna, eggs, toast, spinach or mango. I usually have waffles. Can I have waffles?’
I have to physically stop myself from all capsing – ‘BE A GROWN UP AND EAT SOME TASTELESS FIBRE!’
The same thing happened to a lesser degree when I announced to my readers that I would be going for 48 hours without the internet. Some people genuinely said they could never, ever do this.
I call bullshit.
I work exclusively on the internet. I went internet free for 48 hours and I was fine. More than fine, I was great. I definitely think you need to plan ahead – download any maps, books, TV shows or movies you need. You also need to choose a quiet weekend – it’s difficult to do this if you have assignments due or you need to organise your kid’s social events but if you’re unable to survive without the internet for a 48 hour period, then you need to do this more than anyone.
I’d like to say it wasn’t easy but it actually was. The worst part was the count down to the big switch off – I panicked and updated like a maniac for the full half hour before I clocked off. The rest of the weekend though? I barely even thought about it.
Things I Iiked
I felt amazing on Monday morning. Clear headed, well rested, no headaches, not panicked.
I liked not feeling like I was pending anything. Having my phone near me is like having a toddler silently poking me. When it was off and on my shelf I didn’t even think about it.
I read two books and it was incredible. I feel like crying when I think about how much I don’t read anymore. My main takeaway from this is to waste as little time as possible on social media and more time reading.
I liked when I logged back on that nothing had changed. I answered my comments in 20 minutes and logged back off again. It’s terrifying to think how much I would have wasted over the weekend, checking in all the time and wasting hours doing what could have been done in 20 minutes at the end of the weekend.
I’m planning on going social media free from 9am to 6pm during the day. The main thing I learned from going social media free that weekend is that I really can do everything I need to on social media in 2 x 20 minute sessions a day, so why am I on there every 10 minutes? This habit is going.
I loved not knowing the time all day – I still wore my watch but I rarely look at it unless I have a notification and my notifications were off. I like being pleasantly surprised that it was only 2pm. All my devices have clocks in the corner so when I didn’t look at them, I had no idea what time it was. It was bliss.
Things I Missed
There was one moment when everyone was watching a really boring TV show and I ordinarily would have watched something on YouTube while crocheting but that wasn’t an option so I read my book instead and it was awesome.
I went to a newsagent while my brother-in-law got coffee and I told him to get me from the newsagent when he was done. I just had to trust that he would because I didn’t have my phone. It was totally fine but it was the only time I felt a bit uncomfortable without my phone.
It was raining and I would ordinarily have done a YouTube workout so I ended up just going for a walk in the rain instead which wasn’t the greatest. Not having entertainment while exercising was a huge issue for me but it was really the only complaint I have.
This week’s episode on Straight and Curly is all about the digital detox, how we went and how you can do it do. Yes – everyone can do this. You can still use your phone as a phone, so you can make and receive calls if you have kids or a family member you need to be contactable for.
Also this week on Sweet Teen Club, Stacey and I are talking about Book 11 – Too Good To Be True. Where all women lie about sexual abuse whilst simultaneously getting what they deserve. Oh Francine Pascal/Ghostwriter. You are such a feminism blocker.
Kelly and I have a Facebook group for Straight and Curly – you can join here – and we’re thinking of running another digital detox soon.
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Are you keen to give the 48 hours digital detox a go? Do you think you can make it?
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P.P.S Are you a blogger or small business who lives in Perth?
16 Comments
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I’m in for next time – definitely think I won’t miss it too much. I often have weekends were I just don’t feel like looking at my laptop or I’ve forgotten about my phone for about eight hours and you’re right, nothing happens at all in that time.
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I do it most weekends these days – I just love it. I’m not used to being in front of a screen so much so I love getting a break from it every now and then.
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I go dark most weekends – I feel like that’s my time and I shouldn’t be working or making myself available to others’ demands if I don’t want to. So, I read. I catch up on some TV. I go for long drives with the guy or long walks with the dog. Then Monday to Friday, I’m online pretty much all the time. One weekend I left my purse in the car, my phone inside, and didn’t even notice until two days later. I didn’t miss anything. (which might say more about my hermit-ness than anything. 😉 )
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Oh my god that sounds like bliss! I’m pretty phone happy a lot of the time but I’m guilty of leaving it in my gym back overnight! gross!
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lovely idea – I would have no trouble going digital free for a weekend. My kids however, whole nother thing! I accompanied my 25yo son to get his wisdom teeth out last week. As he hopped in the chair, I took his wallet, keys, sunnies and phone out of his hands to put in my bag to look after. Anaesthetist gently removed the phone from my hand, saying that is the first thing they look for when they come round, so he would just put it in the recovery room for him. Sure enough, when I went to collect him, he was checking his phone to see what he had missed in the last hour! xx
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Oh my god I never thought of that! Of course. I’d be desperate for my phone after an hour at the dentist. That’s so sad isn’t it? 🙂
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I’ve done an internet detox weekend. It is pretty nice. Even just doing a social media ban is great.
But, come on, isn’t pre-downloading stuff cheating a bit? Kinda like those articles where people say they lived on $10 for the week but then, when you read it, they made most of their meals out of stuff they already had in their pantry 🙂
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No I disagree – pre-internet you still had books, maps and videos so why can’t you have them on a detox? You just have to plan ahead! 🙂
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Where I live, we have very limited access to internet (ie I currently pay $150 a month for 27GB). We often have to go without internet purely because we have run out of data. I don’t mind not getting on the internet if it is my choice, but I find it incredibly frustrating when I need to use the internet for work or business (we own our farm) and can’t get any.
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Hi Jo, I know how you feel. I often don’t use the internet on weekend as I’m at the in-laws farm and there’s not always reception or reliable internet access. My partners dad gets up at five or four in the morning to pay the bills as the satellite internet is too slow/overloaded during the day to do online banking!!
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I totally agree – I think the state of our internet in Australia is a disgrace. There’s so much pressure for Australian start ups to take on the global economy and we just can’t when it takes 4 hours to upload a 2 minute video to youtube.
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For the whole of winter I’m going phone free on the weekends & im limiting my day time use to 3 times a day. I’m trying to break the habit of always picking up my phone. Do I really need to look at google, Instagram, email or my apps 20 times a day? HELL NO! It feels good:)
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Exactly! Every time I put myself on a social media ban I’m astounded at how much extra time I have. It’s almost sad.
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My girlfriend and I recently took a week-long trip through a region that had very spotty internet service; as well, we spent a lot of time driving around and enjoying nature rather than hanging out indoors. Did I miss the internet? Not a bit! But the other wonderful thing I noticed was how calm and focused and relaxed I felt – I don’t think of myself as a particularly distracted person ordinarily, but the change in how I felt was SO dramatic that I realised I was very mistaken. Quite a chilling realisation, I think! I’m trying to preserve that feeling but am seeing how easy it is to fall back into those habits. Thanks for the timely post! 🙂
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You’re welcome – I hate that I only get that feeling when I’m away from the internet. I’m going to try to make it more of a thing in my everyday life.
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Me too!!!
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