Disconnect to reconnect: rethinking the habit of digital connection
Are we becoming slaves to digital products? Do you also feel the acceleration of time, which comes with anxiety about not doing enough?
My mind rewinds to an experience. Ten years ago, I left an unfulfilling job and took on a backpacking trip to Southeast Asia, with no real plan. By chance, I ended up at a meditation retreat in Chiangmai, Northern Thailand, where I lived without my digital devices, the internet, or even human interaction, except with the meditation master. My routine was simple: I meditated, ate, and slept. It was only after 21 days of disconnection that I felt a sense of inner calm and true contentment in life. In other words, I reconnected with myself.
This prompts me in rethinking the habit of how we connect with others nowadays. As a UX designer, I see how many apps are designed to encourage users to use or consume more, without helping them in creating more value. As a user, I feel my addictiveness to my phone and wonder if the constant need for more is driving me to feel less. Let’s admit it: I mindlessly scroll through social media when I am bored or tired. That is not restorative. Yet, I have no clue how to change. A wise friend recommended “Digital Detoxing”, and I started to question this dilemma of “seeking connections, ending up feeling more disconnected”.
Actually, what are we disconnecting from?
Disconnecting
What does it take to disconnect?
The first thing that comes to mind is a break from social media. I used to joke that I had a degree in connecting with people, but the rise of Instagram or else has turned my passion into an addiction. I can’t stop scrolling through others’ stories and posts, knowing that won’t add much value to my life. I don’t feel creative, even feel negative by watching others’ experiences.
Another scary confession is that I feel a rush of Dopamine with phone notifications and am worried when nothing comes for a while. It adversely affected my sleeping quality and disturbed my sleep cycle. When I did my research on this topic, I can’t believe so many others suffered from the same issue! Neuroscientists from Harvard explained that the association of notifications became successful social interactions in an evolutionary context.
Nowadays, our attention span is also shrinking. For example, have you experienced that when you are with your friends or family at the dinner table, but you are on your phone chatting with others? Living fully in the present became almost impossible with our devices.
It might be time to take a step back and reevaluate our relationship with our devices.
Discovery and exploration
Let us first define what is technology in communication: convenience, efficiency, fast-paced/instant, and virtual/digital. We can talk to multiple friends at the same time with messaging apps. We get immediate answers and solutions from the internet, ChatGPT, or any AI. We mostly consume content and information.
- What if we promote a slower pace of communication?
- How might we slow down the concept of time?
- How might we embrace inconvenience in interactions?
- How might we focus on value than efficiency?
- How might we change our mindset, eventually?
By coming up with opposite concepts, I questioned if we can distance ourselves from technology and establish better and healthier patterns in our behaviors.
The only way to know is to ask many questions and try answering them:
- What if users are asked to ask many questions? What if, eventually, users cannot find answers within this product?
Can an app provide alternative methods to guide you to think deeper and wilder and promotes the journey of discovery?
Instead of seeking an answer, the journey is the answer.
- What if users take an active role to create and act, instead of consuming?
Can an app ask us to explore and create value outside the app? We need to activate all our senses and emotions to fully experience. We learn by trial and error, experiencing the world firsthand, which allows us to be creative and build something new and exciting. - What if users can form a community outside the platform?
Can an app encourage us to share our experiences creatively in the real world? For example, have you ever left a post-it note on a library book to try to connect with a future borrower? Have you ever written a capsule message and tried to send a message to the future you? Imagine our journey can become part of another person’s journey and it is all depending on spontaneity and serendipity. It forms a net of good intentions without forcing a connection to happen.
What design can impact our behaviors and habit? Can we rethink and reshape the form of digital connection? Can it really slow down time for users? All these questions are open and there are, yet, no answers.
Reconnecting
Designers are to reshape users’ behaviors and, eventually, their mindsets. So it is very important to stay healthy and carry good intentions when we own such a prominent power and responsibility. It is important to step back and reconnect with the question “Why we are designing in a certain way”.
Today, I challenged myself to step away from social media and engage my brain in a different way. It was a brain workout day, flexing my mental muscles and trying to write and rebuild connections of concepts. This journey leads to a more meaningful and fulfilling hour of mindful thinking, instead of scrolling social media or asking ChatGPT to brainstorm for me.
Also, I met the goal of one blog post per week, which rewarded me with consistent accomplishment and connected with my thoughts at the end!
Follow-up on this topic:
NN/g has a great article talking about the device vortex, the user begins with a single intentional interaction followed by a series of unplanned interactions, which creates a sense of being “pulled” deeper into the digital space, making the user feel out of control. It discussed the causes, the control, and the responsibility of a designer.
To close my thoughts here, I would like to share the artwork of Miao Ying, where creative intervention enables resistance to the unicorns’ online control.
