As a self-proclaimed phone addict, there’s nothing more maddening than someone telling you to simply turn off your phone. Granted, there’s a million other more useful things you could be doing than scrolling through Instagram — but is there anything more aesthetically pleasing?
Every now and then, it can be utterly relieving to turn off your phone and shut your computer screen, that blissful moment when there are no more notification sounds and no virtual world screaming at you to log back in.
But after the silence has a moment to settle, you’re not alone if you start to feel an itch in your fingers. What if someone messaged you? How do you know that some critical breaking news update has just passed you by? Those thoughts almost feel reminiscent of separation anxiety, where the very absence of your phone causes you distress despite your wish to turn off.
For many, it’s becoming almost impossible to turn off. And beyond the ability to turn off your phone, it’s becoming impossible to turn off your online persona.
Liking and sharing posts on Instagram is not just about enjoying photography, it’s about ‘cultivating a personal brand’
Perhaps you’ve heard of it before. Creating a personal brand is supposedly the new requirement and duty if you plan on being an active presence in social media. You cannot simply ‘be’ online, you must decide what persona and values you want to reflect. Maybe that means writing articles and creating content for those in your community. You might choose to write Harry Potter fanfiction and immerse yourself in the Potterverse. You also might choose to dip your toe into the makeup and fashion communities across Youtube, Tumblr and Twitter.
But… if you decide to jump in, you have to stay committed. There’s no ‘take-backsies.’ Why? Because what you post remains online forever. No matter how many posts and accounts you delete, the Internet records everything. So, creating that personal brand becomes important because it defines what you leave behind and what reputation you build. What kind of person are you? If you post about activist topics and suddenly stop for some personal reason, that ‘gap’ online is suddenly questionable. Why did you stop?
How, then, can you turn off if you have to always stay abreast of each development? Using social media has its perks, but that inherent social pressure to stay active and constantly available can be exhausting. How can you turn off that little voice in your head reminding you to stay relevant on Instagram and your various social media platforms? Even wanting to go on ‘fun’ sites can become a chore that requires you to be alert.
So, what do you do about it?
There are a million other posts describing how to unplug for a day. What are the ten steps to separate yourself from the virtual reality that you can get lost in? Do you delete your Facebook? Remove yourself from all social media sites even though all of your private details remain there?
If you’re being honest with yourself, there’s a very small number of people who will actually take those dramatic steps to remove themselves. After all, social media is becoming norm for how people connect. It’s how many stay in touch with family and friends from their childhood. Let’s not pretend that these cold turkey solutions will be used by anyone but the 1 percent.
Instead, you can try to be more reasonable with yourself. If you could, would you want to be less addicted to your phone? If so, take the mental step of deciding that you’ll delete some apps off your device. Decide that you’ll make more of an effort of staying in contact with people outside of Facebook so that if, in the future, you want to delete your account, it doesn’t feel like going cold turkey. Make a pact that you’ll use your phone just for work or limit the time you spend on it.
Unfortunately, both the benefit and downside to devices is that they are multi-functional.
That is, you can’t just use it for work or simply for pleasure. By virtue of the device itself, it offers you that and more. You can go on your phone to check email, only to spend 10 minutes reaching out to social media influencers on Twitter and seeing whether your favourite food blog has posted anything new. That multi-functionality was one of the great technological advances, making it so that people weren’t forced to carry a work phone, personal phone and pager on every trip. While that convenience is still notable, it means the separation between work and play is growing smaller.
So, can you actually turn off? Can you turn off your phone, that urge to constantly stay relevant and brand-loyal to yourself? Do you even want to? The answers to all of those things are complicated. But just asking yourself the question can be helpful so while you’re cultivating that brand, give your brain five percent of its capacity to consider it and you might be surprised at what you find.