Umbrella Explain How to be Smart About Your Digital Wellness

Do you fill small gaps in your day with technology use?  Check your phone at traffic lights, waiting for a lift, or your morning coffee?  Do you feel anxious when you are without your phone or irritable when you can’t read and respond to emails?  As a potential mental health concern, our use and possible overuse of digital immersion is rightly gaining more attention. Excessive use of technology has been associated with various mental health concerns such as poor self‐ confidence, anxiety, depression, lower emotional stability, and lower life satisfaction.  Specific to social media use has been associated with problems such as sleep deprivation, stress, anxiety, social isolation, social comparison, loneliness, and depression.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association also clearly demonstrated a link between high levels of digital technology use and subsequent ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) symptoms – such as struggling to listen or hold attention, distractibility, and trouble waiting for things or sitting still. While previous research has shown a relationship between technology use and poorer attention, this study is the first to demonstrate that greater technology use is linked to greater problems with attention over time – two years later. The ability to maintain focus, tune out distractions, and exercise patience towards meeting our longer term goals are important abilities for both our success at work and our wellbeing.

Constant technology use is also problematic as it’s the spaces in between tasks that give us an opportunity to recover, allowing our brains enough rest so that when we tackle the next task we have enough mental energy to focus and be productive. Plus it’s these pauses which often give our brains the opportunity to consolidate and connect ideas, fostering greater memory and creativity.

How can we then be smart about our digital wellness, and what are some potential solutions? In Umbrella’s experience, having conversations about possible solutions, and experimenting with different options are both successful starting points. Talk with colleagues/your team to see which creative options might work, or at least be worth a try.

Find one day a week to agree to completely disconnect - recharge your physical and mental batteries by doing anything that doesn’t involve a screen. Experiment with periods of time in the day when you go off-line – perhaps for an hour or two in the morning when you focus on tasks that require your full attention. Try turning off email and message alerts and set up an automatic reply letting the message sender know you will get back to them within a certain time frame. 

Simplify technology use while doing complex work tasks – especially tasks requiring learning, concentration, or creativity. Putting your phone away in a drawer or bag can help, as can closing background webpages and turning off all alerts for a period of time. Set up some screen free zones in the office especially in areas where discussion and collaboration are a focus.

The Umbrella team are committed to supporting digital wellbeing as a component of holistic wellness. Consider providing a digital wellbeing seminar for your team or set up a digital wellbeing challenge – contact Umbrella to find out more: jacqui@umbrella.org.nz .

For more information on workplace wellness, workplace mental health and employee wellbeing please go to http://umbrella.org.nz .