Matrix Detox – Digital Disconnection as a Necessity

Transfixed by the digital-glow, we remain convinced we are somehow less than the woman with the perfect body and angel face, less than the man with the Ferrari and less than the successful employee with several awards and the big house in California.

Smartphones are never far away from our fingertips and in this digital world most of us cannot function without them.

So how often do you use your phone? How many times during the day do you swipe, use apps, check social media, send messages or even just generally handle your phone? How have we become so obsessed with the digital world, and is it time to unplug ourselves from the mindlessness it provides us?

It’s not uncommon to overhear virtually any conversation and receive the words, Facebook, Instagram, Google, email – or text message. It is 2019, and billions of people across the globe are now virtually and digitally connected to one another. In so many ways, this has been a great time saver. (Or has it?)

This new way of living has made things like keeping in touch with family and friends, managing businesses and gathering information on the go a breeze. Many people really believe in how life has been simplified by technology.

And much like any of the new modern conveniences that have come our way over the past 50 years, once you have joined the technological highway, you may wonder what you would ever do without it?

Of course, not all this digital media is always golden dust. For many people, being connected is easy, but on the other hand disconnecting is nearly impossible.

In fact, doctors today are finding that people deal with an Internet outage, or a dead phone, or the lack of being able to login to something as trivial as Facebook, can cause full-blown onsets of anxiety from people of all ages and walks of life.

We’re all so dependent on technology that we rarely disconnect. Whether we’re spending hours in front of a computer for work, checking our phones, surfing the Internet or watching TV, it’s hard to get away from digital distraction.

You may have attempted to go phone-free or deactivated your Facebook account in hope of a “matrix detox” and we all know it feels good but only for the short-term. Before long we’re running to see what we’re missing; what people is planning and we don’t know yet. In other words, as I was implying, we’re severely addicted.

Many of us feel like our phones are another organ of the body; a lot of our lives revolve around social media and instant messaging, so without this, we can feel secluded, alone and sick.

I have a strong personal opinion with the idea of leaving technology of all kinds, in a long term, it’s ironic because my own career relies on it and my job as well, but while I see it as a very useful tool, I am also cognizant that technology has transform us into actual “digital-puppets”, human beings whose abilities and emotions have been destroyed.

The very real danger is that as we progress deeper and deeper into the offerings of this charming treat, many of us, perhaps our future sons, will be completely cut off to the experience of living in the real world.

The more time we spend glued to our entertainment cubes, the more time we spend imbibing ideas about our own insufficiency. Systematic disconnection from technology is as necessary as our integration with technology; particularly since we are standing at the very threshold, and certainly nowhere near the end, of technology’s advance.