What it is?
I’ve been doing an internet sabbatical the last 5 days now. I believe my stress levels are down a good bit, so that’s a positive. My attention span is going stronger too. And so now what?
I’ve slightly cheated a bit, but nothing too drastic. The plan is, no Texts or Messages, no YouTube, no social media, stay away from news. I’ve done pretty good, only used my phone when I need to. Only carried my work phone, which I’ve already stripped down. I have worn my ultra watch so in a pinch, I’m not totally out of the internet and can keep track of health stuff. I’ve allowed myself to stream music and TV, and an occasional online game… but ultimately cut out a lot of things that I just find myself wasting a lot of time doing… mostly things that drive short attention spans. I’m doing more with offline content, print, reading. In a lot of ways better things, more worthwhile and more engaging.
It’s great!
A truly tougher thing to do is a total technology sabbatical. I tried it before and it is really tough to do. I caved day 6. I bought a dumb phone, forwarded my cell to it and cut out literally everything. I read books, and listened to the radio only in the car. In both of these experiments, I of course still needed to work. So I had to keep everything operational for that. You have to discipline yourself to stick to it. Avoid the temptations to go on social media. Go and actually talk to people. Interact in the moment. It really is a fun experiment, to be honest. Cutting out the unnecessary is sometimes good for your well being. I like it.