Hands up if the first thing you reach for when you wake up is your smartphone.
Hands up if the last thing in your hand before you nod off at night is, also, your smartphone.
Well, you’re not alone.
You’re one of the three billion people in the world who live with (or even thrive on) constant pings on your handheld mobile device, bells and beeps from a work email inbox, instant messaging apps and the occasional telephone call.
If, however, the phone was taken away from you for three days, would you survive?
“I’d die a slow and painful death,” deadpans Gogulan Dorairajoo, a public relations agency chief executive and fitness and footie devotee.
He’s serious, though.
Dorairajoo admits to FMT that he can’t visualise a digital fast of any measure of time.
“I’m at ‘work’ the minute I switch on my phone in the morning,” explains the father of two, before adding, “But I wouldn’t miss my laptop so much if I had to do without it because I can do almost everything on the phone.”
He hardly sees the need to use a tablet, either, as he knows he can’t put the phone down. “It’s an extension of me,” he says.
One would assume, then, that millennials or Gen-Zs would be even more surgically attached to their devices if boomers and Gen-Xers can’t do without it.
Not for Tunku Maisarah Iman, 25, who is a rare instance that debunks any blanket generalisation that all youngsters are obsessed with their phones.
“I went without my phone for three whole days, and I loved it!” chuckles the bubbly lady. “Actually, I think I’ll do it this weekend!”
Some time back, Maisarah had sent her phone to the repair shop but ended up just leaving it there for an extra two days.
While the other phone was in repair, she had “that old Nokia phone that can only make calls,” so that her mother could contact her.
But didn’t she miss social media? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok?
“No,” she answers simply.
Maisarah was 12 when she was first given an analog phone and two years later, she had her first smartphone.
“To be honest, I don’t like to look at my phone when I’m with people, so when I’m out with my friends, I just put it away,” she says.
“Other than a text from my parents, I will only reply to any message when I am fully present.”
And, surprisingly, she has a pet peeve about kids donning ear-pods (wireless earbuds) while dining with others.
“It’s rude,” she says.
According to Lee Chonghui, 29, she can easily go “for two, three days without my phone” – especially if she’s hiking or doing outdoor activities.
She then adds, “The only social media account I have is Facebook. I do not have Twitter or Instagram or anything else.”
While this trio of Malaysians is not representative of the multi-layered society, their choices do present some surprises and perhaps dismantle some assumptions, where a casual observer might correlate the young with an inability to look at real-life away from the tiny blue-light screen.
A digital detox, or disconnecting from all tech deliberately for a spell, has its benefits.
Overusing technology can have a disruptive effect on your sleep, your relationships and even, ironically, your productivity – claims a report.
If the thought of missing just one notification makes you shudder with anxiety, then you could always start small by limiting screen time.
According to research by Mark Griffiths published in Psychology Today, excessive social media use can lead to anxiety, depression, addiction and exacerbated feelings of loneliness.
The findings are supplemented by other reports that say humans need space for real-life human interaction instead of spending all day staring at a computer only to come home and continue browsing or checking social media on the phone.
There is a danger of missing out on cultivating deep real-world relationships if one were to be so immersed in the digital life for ‘fear of missing out’ – or FOMO, as it’s termed.
Excessive use of technology may lead to physical inactivity, too, say experts, which is as detrimental to one’s health as smoking.
A New York Times study calculated the loss of productivity from people whose sleep patterns were disrupted by gazing at their smartphones just before bedtime.
The figure came to a few thousand US dollars per person per year. Multiplied by millions in the workforce and lost productivity becomes a costly problem.
Tech is keeping us awake and making it harder for us to fall asleep, which means, once you’re in the office, there’ll be yawns before lunch.
To help you kickstart your digital detox, it’s important to remember that it’s the little things that count.
Turn off push notifications on your phone when you need to unwind, set some time (about 20 to 30 minutes to respond to whatever messages that come in), and if you can, make your bedroom a no-tech zone.
If the last bit seems impossible, putting your phone far away from your pillow at night might make a difference.
A digital detox need not be as radical as a three-day detox, but even a small daily detox might allow us to see our loved ones and our world, in a healthier light.