#DigitalDetox Challenges, Lockdowns and Teenagers… Oh My!

I'm at the end of the third week of my #DigitalDetox challenge adventure... and talk about adventures. Things got totally derailed in ways that were expected, just not this soon. And it made doing the little challenges within my little #DigitalDetox coloring book all the more important. Because it gave me time to breathe!

So... This week, not only was I attempting to finish last week's challenge of writing someone a letter, but I had this week's challenge of spend 30 minutes looking at the clouds. AND my home country of New Zealand decided to go into Level 4 Lockdown in the middle of all of this, thrusting two teenagers into home learning situations again.

Yeah... Life is always filled with unexpected turns.

So... Here's how the week went.

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#DigitalDetox Challenge 2: Write someone a letter

So... It turns out that not only am I obsessed with minimizing the influence that social media and the internet have on my daily life, but I'm also incredibly busy that I forget to take just a few short minutes to do the simple things.

This week's #DigitalDetox challenge was to write someone a letter. You would think that for a writer, this one would be simple. But the truth was a bitter pill to take.

I had colored in the picture for the challenge, and... Yeah... Um... That is sort of where it ended. I had allowed my busy schedule and my interactions with others to take over, and when it came time to recharge... Well... I binge watched Friends on Netflix.

So, there were a few lessons to learn from this week's experience.

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#DigitalDetox Challenge 1: Walk with no technology

I'll admit it: I'm a little obsessed with my over usage of social media and the internet in general. It goes beyond a need to understand everything regarding security on the internet. It's mainly because I know how much of a time suck that social media can be.

And my obsession isn't just because of myself alone. I see within my husband and children how technology (namely the games and Netflix) are designed to be additive. And when I see my family struggling to get enough sleep because of the addictive nature of devices, I'm going to take active steps to try to do something out it.

I have tried multiple times to put the family on Device-Free days, only for the idea to fail abysmally. And in all my attempts, there is one thing that I have learned: I can't control the actions of the other adults (and even though my youngest is 16 years old, she's effectively an adult). BUT, I can make other adults feel guilty when they see the results of the minimal device usage life.

For that to have the impact I want it to have, I need to get my own dependance on devices and the internet under control.

To that end, I have started a #DigitalDetox challenge.

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