In this era that we live in, a lot of things are now revolving around the screen. Some people, as soon as they wake up in the morning, the first thing they will do is to pick up their phone to check. Some even spend a very major part of their day scrolling through social media timelines, working with computer, watching television, and some go to bed staring at their devices. It is true that technology has made the lives of people very easy, but being too attached to it has also taken away a very important part of humankind, which is peace of mind. Sometimes, one of the best things you do for yourself is to take a break and disconnect yourself from the digital world, so as to reconnect with yourself. This is called digital rest.
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Something very funny happened a few weeks back that I still remember. I came back in the afternoon, so I decided to check my notification briefly before I prepare for my evening activities. When I opened my phone, from one notification to another, and a lot of messages kept coming in. Then a notification from a social media post popped up, and I clicked and it took me to my social media page. Then a lot of things on my timeline started to pop out, so I was glued reading the news. At that time, there was a particular trending news that happened within the country, and so I started following the news and reading some follow-up reports about it. To me, I did not know that time was racing fast because I was so engrossed with what I was reading. As a matter of fact, my interest got fixed to it.
When I checked time, I realised that I had spent a couple of hours on my phone. The funny part of it was that the time was right there in the same phone, but I did not check it all these while because my interest was fixed on what I was reading. All the things that I planned to do for that evening was left undone. That was when I realised how a lot of people have been trapped in the social media world so much that they are cut off from the real world. You will be surprised that some people can spend hours on their screen, busy knowing what is happening in other places, yet they do not know what is happening around them. Isn't it funny that the same technology that is meant to connect people is also the same thing that is also creating a distance between people and cutting them off from the world around them.
You have to understand that your mind needs to rest. People often remember to rest their body when they are tired, but they fail to rest their own mind when it requires it. Constantly gluing yourself to screens, notifications, messages, and all these will leave your mind overwhelmed. Every single day, we consume a large amount of information, but on the flip side of it, we may not even need all of those pieces of information. People just end up putting themselves into constant pressure, and of course trying to use the standards they see online to access their own life. Just the way you need to rest your machines after constant usage, so as to prevent it from breaking down. In the same way, the mind also needs to regain its strength. So give yourself some moments to rest and also take time away from the digital world.
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One of the things that people make mistake is to confuse being busy online to being productive. Do you know that someone can be online for hours and still end up not producing any significant result? More so, there is a long time that you will keep running over online and it will begin to lead to "diminishing return" because of mental exhaustion. Now imagine someone spending hours on social media and monitoring other people's achievements, yet they have not taken time to take any action about their own goal. At the end of the day, they would have been busy, but it does not automatically translate into any meaningful result. You have to know that watching someone else build their own dream is not the same thing as building your own dreams.
When you disconnect from the digital space, it will give you more time to connect more with the people around you. There is a neighbour I once had, he stayed in the neighborhood for a couple of months, yet he was almost absolutely unknown. He does not go out because it was said that he was an IT guy and an app developer. He can virtually stay in his apartment for days or even weeks without leaving his apartment. Almost no one knew him for the couple of months he spent in the neighborhood. I mean, he was completely disconnected from the world around him. Imagine if something has happened to him, no one would have known. You see one of the reasons why one needs to take a break from the digital world.
You have to make digital rest your daily habit. But this does not mean that you should abandon technology completely, you only need to find a balance between its usage and knowing when to a rest. Create a specific time when you stay away from devices and focus on other things that matter.
Thanks for reading