Digital Wellbeing – how much “digital” does us good?

What do you think of when you hear Digital Wellbeing? Maybe just that weird feature that suddenly appeared quietly in the device settings of your Android smartphone. Maybe of Digital Detox challenges, corresponding retreats, or (success) stories of people who left social media behind.

 

Digital wellness and Digital Detox are, ironically, mostly addressed on social media. There, they line up alongside a number of other lifestyle trends such as meditation, mindfulness, and gratitude. But just as meditation is good for many people, digital wellbeing is a concept whose value goes far beyond the feel-good posts. Ultimately, it is about nothing less than - as the name suggests - mental (and also physical) well-being in connection with the use of digital media.

 

This article is the start of a three-part series on the topic. In this first part, we will look at digital wellbeing in the private sphere. The next article will be dedicated to digital wellbeing in the workplace, where users face different but no inferior challenges. Last but not least, in the third article we will look at a more specific phenomenon, Zoom Fatigue.

 

How digital media can serve us

 

The Internet in general and social media in particular should not be categorically demonized. Both have undeniable benefits that make them attractive to use in the first place. Because of their wide range of uses, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of most people's lives - whether for personal planning, online shopping, consuming digital media or maintaining social contacts. Messenger services, video calls and social media, for example, enable people to connect with family and friends across spatiotemporal boundaries. Physical distance need not stand in the way of maintaining cherished contacts.

At the same time, forums and groups, fan pages and online communities make it possible to exchange ideas with like-minded people even more than in real life. After all, in the limited circle of acquaintances from school, university or work, it may be difficult to find people with the same interests - especially if they are outside the mainstream. Online, it's easy to network about these interests and make new acquaintances.

In addition, there are now a large number of apps and services that can also serve physical health - for example, with meditation instructions or workouts. Others offer support in everyday life, for example with extensive shopping lists, recipe collections, to-do lists and productivity tools. Moreover, a great deal of knowledge is available on the Internet at low cost or often free of charge. Numerous tutorials on a wide variety of topics can be found on YouTube. Online courses are often offered relatively cheaply by various providers, especially compared to their analog counterparts.

The Internet thus offers opportunities for communication, everyday organization, further education and entertainment that hardly know any comparable equivalent in the analog world.

 

Why we often use social media more than we would like to

 

But as is unfortunately too often the case, with all these unbeatable advantages also comes a number of disadvantages. The open-access nature of the Internet, for example, makes it possible to share not only a great deal of knowledge, but also dangerous half-knowledge, questionable ideologies, and hate speech.

Other consequences have been deliberately designed. Operators of social media platforms, for example, are always concerned with keeping users on their pages as long as possible. After all, the longer the user stays on the platform, the more advertisements can be shown to them. At the same time, they generate new data that can be analyzed to provide even more targeted advertising. Social media platforms are therefore designed to retain attention for as long as possible.

 

But unfortunately, excessive use can have a number of disadvantages for the user. Because at the end of what one actually wanted to look at, it is made temptingly easy to stay on the page a bit longer and look further. This can (depending on the niche the algorithm places you in) lead to you being sucked into a maelstrom of more or less harmful content. At best, it is simply not very interesting, at worst, a bombardment of highlight reels of other people's lives can lead to self-doubt and insecurity.

 

Content creators make life difficult for us

 

While 'background information' is available when you look at friends' postings, which supplements what you see and puts things into perspective to a certain extent, there is often no indication whatsoever in pictures of strangers that they are actually real people with imperfect lives. This is not surprising, after all, full-time content creators make their living by presenting themselves and their lives as favorably as possible. As a result, even the presentation of 'flaws' is done in a very calculated way that ultimately doesn't really serve to soften the carefully constructed image of perfection. Even more so, increasingly sophisticated and subtle methods of image editing suggest a false image of what people 'normally' look like. As a result, beauty ideals that are repeatedly shown and increasingly normalized can lead to a poorer body image and cracked self-confidence. Here, of course, it strongly depends on the type of content consumed. The aforementioned effects are especially likely if you are in the beauty or lifestyle corner or even on 'Fitstagram.' (You can read more about the effects of social media on self-image here).

We're wasting our time

 

Even without these effects on mental health, scrolling endlessly through your Instagram or TikTok feed can have a whole other consequence on your life: Loss of time. People like to use social media for light entertainment in between. There's nothing wrong with that per se, which you can't really use productively or for active relaxation. So it's no big deal to glance at your cell phone in the waiting room. But if 'in between' extends to such an extent that one's own real life is pushed further and further away, this can become a problem. Of course, there are other ways to procrastinate and push away everyday responsibilities. Social media, however, is especially readily available when looking for quick distractions. One's own life takes a back seat to the lives of others, often strangers.

 

Forcing yourself to be happy

 

To protect yourself from these effects, however, you don't have to give up social media completely. It's often enough to reduce the amount of time you use it. For example, it helps to consider what you actually want to use the app for - and to leave it consistently when you've seen what you want to see. But since that's not always so easy, you can set app limits that pause the app after a certain time or remind you to leave. Alternatively, you can set times in advance when selected apps are not available through various tools (either available in the factory or in app stores). For example, a productivity mode (which does not allow distracting apps) and a relaxation mode (which does not allow work apps) can be set up. To make smartphone use generally less attractive during certain periods, it is also worth trying to temporarily set the display to grayscale. A combination of methods can help limit social media use - either to work productively, or to enjoy some screen-free time and relaxation.

To make the time you still spend on Instagram, for example, more satisfying, it pays to radically clean out the pages you follow on a regular basis. Or have different profiles: for example, one to follow only friends and people you know personally, and one to view professional content.

Otherwise, despite all the sophisticated tools: Just turning off your phone sometimes always helps when in doubt. (For more tips, click here).

 

Are smartphones bad for our sleep in the evening?

 

In addition to the rather diffuse consequences already mentioned, excessive media use can also have much more tangible consequences for physical health. For example, the blue light emitted by screens is known to inhibit melatonin production. The body is signaled that it's daytime - and therefore time to be awake - despite the late hour. In this respect, screen use before falling asleep can, on the one hand, lead to the process of falling asleep being prolonged. On the other hand, sleep also loses quality once it has come. In particular, the deep sleep phases that are important for regeneration are affected. The result: despite enough time in bed, you wake up the next morning unrested.

The solution can be blue light glasses or filters on the screens themselves. These are available as apps, but most devices come with the function as standard. In the settings, you can often define the times at which the filter is used. The orange coloring is supposed to imitate light appropriate for the time of day and thus not impair sleep.

In this way, one does not necessarily have to do without screens before bedtime. Nevertheless, you should be mindful of what content you consume in the evening. Emotionally charged topics or bad news can stir you up again shortly before bedtime, which gets in the way of your nightly rest. So even with blue light filters, it's better to decide against the exciting Netflix series when in doubt. (You can find other good reasons to put your smartphone down regularly here).

 

Conclusion

 

Digital media are a natural part of life today. Their ubiquity is no coincidence, as they have a lot of potential to enrich and simplify everyday life. On the other hand, whether intentionally or not, excessive and careless use can bring disadvantages for mental and physical health. However, you don't have to let the many opportunities that these platforms offer pass you by out of concern for unwanted negative effects. With a few techniques and conscious time-outs, we can help our stone-age brains stay healthy and happy in a digital world.