A plea for endurance
At a quarter to nine, I took my laptop out of its case. It had been in a warm country for three weeks but hadn't seen any daylight. On Friday afternoon, I logged out and put it in my carry-on luggage, from the carry-on it went into the safe, from the safe back into the carry-on, to turn it on again three weeks after closing it. I was offline for three weeks, and that turns out to be very good for the brain.
Our brain is apparently always looking for rewards, which sounds quite addictive when you think about it. We used to find that in hunting for prey, making a fire, or being with family; nowadays, we project all of this onto our phone. As long as we are reachable and as long as we are thought of, that seems to be the motto.
On that fateful almost-holiday Friday afternoon at 6:00 PM, I not only turned off my laptop, but I also left about eight group chats, and honestly: I've never felt so free. It's not because of those group chats, but it's because of me and my brain, which is such a sucker for attention and normally can't resist the temptation of looking, due to the dopamine that is released. And being always ‘on’ is very bad for us, says psychologist Thijs Launspach to Villamedia. Our body remains in an alarm (standby) mode, which prevents us from recovering.
Processing information is work, whether it's a message from your best friend or an endlessly long email (don't do that anymore) from a colleague. It makes no difference in treatment for your brain. With a non-stop stream of stimuli, you exhaust yourself, which ultimately leads to poorer performance. So if you never stop working or taking in stimuli, you are helping your brain to self-destruct. Loosely translated: your brain shuts itself down.
How do you prevent it? Do things where your phone is off for a while (or a nice long time). It has been proven that being in nature for twenty minutes calms your brain. Put on your hiking shoes and go, if you ask me. And turn off your laptop during your vacation or on the weekend; it really can't hurt sometimes.
