We'll tell you how to relearn how to spend time outside of virtual reality

rabiarahi

Do you know what scares you more than the daily rising prices in stores? It’s the statistics of phone screen time over the last seven days. And you’re amazed at the total number of hours spent on virtual communication.

At one time, smartphones made our lives much easier: here you have constant communication with a person, no matter where in the world he or she is, various stores that offer world brands, books ever written by a person, films, TV series, music, museums and galleries... But the time has come when mobile devices have moved from the category of opportunities to the category of serious addiction.

A study by British scientists from Ofcom shows that the average adult checks their phone every 12 minutes, and two out of five people go to social networks and instant messengers in the first five social media marketing service minutes after waking up. Scientists have also found that due to the prevailing virtual communication, we are losing the ability to empathize, becoming less sensitive. But a more terrifying problem is the loss of interest in real life.

Our digitalization leads not only to serious physical problems, but also to psychological imbalance. This disrupts sleep, irritability and fatigue arise.

Staring at your phone before bed is not “unloading” the brain, as we think. This kind of pastime is very difficult and energy-consuming work for our gray matter.

To protect your nervous system from overload, it is worth periodically conducting a digital detox. This is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. Refusing mobile devices is the same practice of mindfulness as, for example, going to a psychologist or doing yoga.

There are several detox scenarios: easy, medium, hardcore. They differ only in the time of refusal from smartphones and all technological benefits of civilization. But do not rush into it. Determine the individual degree of restriction that is suitable exclusively for you and only you.


After all, radical attempts to cleanse the mind of digital have three significant disadvantages:

1/ such drastic changes are difficult for our brain;

2/ not everyone and not always has the opportunity to completely give up gadgets;

3/ the effect even after the strictest restrictions will not last longer than a month.


Therefore, it will be much wiser and more effective to include various digital detox practices in your life on a permanent basis.

For example, board games. They will not only contribute to the development of critical and analytical thinking, but will also be a great reason to spend time with friends and family. And if you do not know which board game to choose, then here is a small selection of games:


Progers

The board game immerses you in the world of interplanetary travel. You are an astrobiologist-programmer who uses coding to control an all-terrain vehicle to collect biological objects on a distant planet.

This simple game is known to many. But we suggest you look at it from a different angle: imagine that the tower is a code, and your task is to refactor it, while trying not to demolish anything.


In the merciless world of the Wild West, a team of professional robbers is waiting for a new task - robbing a train. This is not an easy task, requiring the coordinated work of all members of the gang. Everything is like in an IT team.


A puzzle game where you need to find the shortest path for the robot to move to the desired point. Develops such a necessary criterion of optimality.