Stress from your smartphone

You step off the plane at a tropical destination. Bag, loved one, cardigan over your arm because it's warm, phone and bottle sunscreen ready. Yes, you have everything. But instead of whipping out your mobile, you hand it over to a friendly smiling lady in a dark blue suit behind a reception desk. To spend two weeks smartphone-free on a beach bed lying there, talking to your company, maybe even reading a book and seeing things without a screen as a filter. The device you usually cling to is safely locked away in a safe. It’s becoming a business, these non-smartphone vacations. There are even hotel rooms that block every signal with the wallpaper.

Okay, secretly I get a bit wobbly, fidgety, and short of breath just thinking about such a situation. The first 'yes-but' pops up in my mind. What if the folks back home need you? Or if you want to take a picture of that once-in-a-lifetime sunset. Are you just going to watch that sinking sun without a phone to capture it? Instagram is fading away in the meantime, because you are the big absentee. And you can't secretly peek into the work group chat either. Which is exactly the intention. Hmgrumph.

The stress from your smartphone, it’s a thing. I once did a recharge where I had to go without a screen after eight in the evening. I slept like a log and actually didn’t miss a thing. On the first morning, I had a tiny heart attack because I had one hundred and five new messages. I tapped on the green icon, my family chat was responsible for half and the editorial chat for the rest. Oh, the messages certainly had a high chuckle factor, but they were just as funny the morning after. And if you scroll through your phone without a plan, you automatically tap on the mailbox again. Even in the evening, or when you’re sitting on a terrace with your loved one, what about in the car on the way to your destination? It’s nice to be non-stop productive. Your phone ensures that you are always working and ’on’. On your free evening, in between your girls‘ weekend, and when you're having tea with grandma.

At the editorial office, there was once a phone box, where you put your device. There was also a lot of digital detoxing going on because you had to kick the habit. A researcher from the University of Sydney advocates the golden mean. Drinking, but in moderation works best after all. And everything that has ‘too’ in front of it is not good for you. Basically, it’s the just-be-normal method. Don’t get lost in your phone, but don’t ban it from your life either. From a lofty perspective, you should be digitally nourishing. Yes, di-gi-tal nourishing. Which means you should engage mindfully with the device, if possible also meaningfully, and everything should be moderated. Roughly translated: don’t grab your phone without thinking, if you do, consider what you want to do with it and make sure it doesn’t revolve around that thing day and night. I think it’s a great initiative to try out on vacation. Let me first open the Bol.com app because I’m going to read books (those from Marion's reading list to be precise).

Source: Psychologie Magazine