One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and having to move to remote work and study is dealing with information overload and increased screen time. On my iPhone alone, I have gone from an average of 3 hours daily in June 2019 to cutting that in half by the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 and in the last few months, it’s spiked back up and doubled, ranging anywhere from 6 to 8 hours daily.
Social media and electronic communications have become even more important than ever before as they are our link to the outside world. However, I (like many others) am also experiencing screen and social media fatigue in various ways because technology and the Internet has become the answer to almost all personal and professional needs.
For the month of June, I said goodbye to all non-work social media – Facebook, my personal Twitter account, Instagram, Snapchat, and even TikTok (no fun dance videos 😢). Dealing with information overload for me usually requires some drastic measures like auditing my digital activities, deactivating and/or deleting several social media accounts and slowly reworking them back where they fit but there are many ways to deal with this.
Here are a few tips to help you manage the information overload. The approach you take is entirely up to you.
One thing I’ve picked up in all of this is the idea of sustainable self care—measures that are easy to implement and continue. This includes making sure you get enough sleep, talk to friends and family, schedule break times from non-essential (yet another Covid-buzzword) screen and technology time, or turn off as many notifications as possible. You can also:
- Try a data detox challenge https://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/2018/04/23/the-data-detox-challenge/
- Declutter Your Data https://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/2019/01/17/declutter-your-data-2019/
- Use email labels, filters or email client software such as Outlook or Thunderbird to categorize your inbox into folders. Even revisiting Gmail’s Settings and using the Categories (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums) can help make your email look less full and chaotic
- Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. COVID reminded us of every service we had ever subscribed to as we received tons of what we are doing about COVID emails as well as frequent update emails. This is a great time to unsubscribe from as many of these as you no longer need. Related to this, review the apps and software on your devices and delete the non-essential.
- Use technology to help with distractions and being able to focus. For many, the goal is to detox, be able to focus and stay healthy – not necessarily to get away from technology. There are many services that help with this – meditation apps like Calm or those focused on productivity such as Focusmate. Use those best suited to your needs while remaining careful about permissions granted to these apps or services.
- Pick up more non-digital activities – crafting, drawing, reading, baking. This has been a great period for finding new hobbies or falling back into old ones
- Alongside scheduling your tasks and breaks for the day, schedule how much time you watch or read the news or even how much you discuss the pandemic and related events
- Be thoughtful about how you seek information online. There has been a lot of misinformation online so it is very important to visit trusted websites for information, be careful with random searches and verify information you come across
- Be a part of the solution – verify and fact check information before sharing. Also, stop to think about what you’re sharing and if it’s essential or contributing to someone else’s information overload.
When faced with information overload, it has been really helpful for me to ask what are my needs and priorities? This helps filter through what is essential to keep and what needs to go.
Samantha’s written about using social media more now. You can read that here. We’d love to know what side you fall on and what strategies you use for dealing with social media. Let us know in the comments!
Related DT Resources
- Tutorial: Staying Tranquil in Your Digital Life
- Tutorial: Removing Myself From The Internet
- Why I Deleted my Instagram and Haven’t Looked Back
- What Do You Spend Your Screen Time On?
Written By: Eseohe Ojo
Edited By: Samantha Summers
Featured Image: Social Networks from ijmaki Used Under Pixabay License
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