Author: It’s Time to Log Off

8 Ways to Put your Phone Down More in 2021

As we enter our third national lockdown in the UK, our screen time has never been higher. I think we’d all agree it’s getting harder and harder to step away from a screen. Ofcom found that during the first lockdown, Brits were spending 40% of their time watching TV and online video, and that’s before working online, or browsing social media. But, this time we’re are not just entering lockdown, we’re also starting a new year. So, here are our tips to help you revamp your screen use and get the most out of this new year!

#1 Turn it off

The first and most obvious tip is – turn it off. It’s easier said than done, each one of us will have fears about being unreachable, even for a short period of time. However, fears like that are almost entirely unfounded. To kickstart a new habit of leaving your phone off for period of time, why not try to turn it off for one hour a day- it’ll be harder than you think- then you can ramp it up.

#2 Leave it at home

An extension of the first tip is to leave your phone behind when you leave the house. Lockdown is actually the perfect time to start this as you have no excuses- you can’t go anywhere other than to shop or exercise anyway! We challenge you to leave your phone behind when you do your weekly shop, write a physical list for a change and go out into the world. It may seem scary or unnerving at first but we lived without up until a decade ago- you can do it!

# 3 Phone-free Zones

Another way to ensure that you don’t bring your phone everywhere, surgically attached to your hand is to enforce physical boundaries. For example, you could ban phones from the dinner table, or your bedroom as we have often recommended. This way, you have to focus on conversation with friends, family or your partner and, as a side benefit, you’ll get much better sleep.

#4 Set time limits

If physical boundaries aren’t working for you, or you just want to take that next step you could now enforce limits around. For example: ‘I won’t go on my phone before breakfast/ after dinner’ or ‘I will reduce my phone use by an hour, through checking the screen time function in settings’.

Optimising your devices to reduce use

We know that putting your phone down can be difficult, especially if you are only relying on human willpower to fight an addictive technology, so we we have some suggestions for optimising your device, to make it easier to reduce your time on it.

#5 Delete apps

Again, we are starting with the obvious: take away the time suckers. You can look through the screen-time feature on smartphones to see which apps you spend the most time on, but it’s likely you already know. Common culprits include social media apps. We’re not saying you have to delete your accounts, but if you delete the app you’ll have to log on to the desktop each time you want to check it- meaning you’ll do it less and less.

#6 Turn off notifications

Another variation on the theme of deleting apps is to turn off your notifications for those time-sucker apps. For example, you could turn off the notifications on your email but leave the red badge on the app so you know how many you have- meaning you will not miss anything but won’t be interrupted in your day. You could employ similar strategies for Facebook Messenger and other social platforms which regularly interrupt your focus and time.

#7 Greyscale

One of the most addictive qualities of our phones is their display. It’s colourful and attractive, so that that our eyes are drawn to the apps which will take up most of our time- all social media platforms have brightly coloured apps don’t they? It might not sound convincing but turn the display to greyscale and soon you’ll notice a difference in your ability to put your phone down.

#8 Reorder your home screen

One of the reasons we end up spending hours longer than intended on our phones, is that our fingers automatically reach for our favourite apps, whether they be games, social medias or anything else. So, our top tip is to regularly rearrange your home screens so that you have to actively look for the apps you want and consciously make the decision to click on them- this small barrier may give you the time to decide to put your phone down. When reordering your home screen, you can also place tools at the front and hide the less useful apps on subsequent screens, to remind yourself of the primary use of the device each time you open it.

We hope that these tips will give you some ideas to help you put your phone down, this lockdown and this year, as we hopefully move towards a life a bit closer to normal in 2021.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

10 Digital Detox Resolutions for 2021, after a Year on Screens

Happy New Year! Glad 2020 is over as much as we are? Pandemic apart, it’s the time of year where we think about what we’d like to leave behind in the old year (all of it?), and what habits will serve us better in the new one. We’re suggesting ten digital detox resolutions which will make a big difference to your physical and mental health as you start this new year. These ten tweaks will benefit every aspect of your life, improving your relationships, helping you sleep, giving you more time to focus on the things that matter to you, leaving you happier, focused and more productive.

Let’s leave behind what feels like the entire year we spent on screens in 2020 and go into 2021 with an appreciation of how to use screens for good, jettisoning the bad.

10 Digital Detox Resolutions for a Healthier, Happier New Year

#1 Set boundaries

Screen use per se has never been a problem. Screens help us connect, work, and inspire and entertain us. The problem comes when we use screens without any boundaries. Boundaries between work and play, boundaries between day and night, boundaries between essential and time-wasting use. This first of our digital detox resolutions is the most important. Set clear boundaries for your screen use. It doesn’t matter what these are, how small or how ambitious, just set some limits or rules and then monitor how you do against them. You could start with just one hour away from your smartphone a day and see how that feels. Most people find this hard to do when they start, so don’t give up at the first hurdle. Give it a go.

#2 Protect your sleep

Sleep is the first casualty of our screen obsession. When we’re tired we lack the self-control to stop that mindless night-time scrolling that can impact our mental health – and, if we’re spending the time online shopping, can put a serious dent in our pocket. Think about how you can introduce small hurdles to any late-night screen scrolling. If you can’t bear to get an alarm clock and/or put your phone outside the door, plug it in the other side of the bedroom so you have to get out of bed to check it. This deceptively simple hacks cuts down on quite a bit of nocturnal scrolling. Set nighttime mode on your phone and logout of social media apps too, when you go to bed. All of these will give you the time to think about whether you really want to spend another hour on your phone after dark.

#3 Get outside, every day

This isn’t another of those resolutions about taking up running or even jumping on a bike. We simply suggest that you get outside your four walls at least once every day and gently walk to a pre-determined place and back. The point here is that it’s actually harder to walk and scroll (though plenty of people manage it of course), than it is to sit and scroll, and the fresh air and natural daylight will give your Zoom-addled brain and eyes a rest. If you want to go for a run of course, that’s up to you.

#4 Put people before phones

Last year we were very restricted in who we could meet up with face-to-face. Despite this (or maybe because of it), many people reported that even those they were spending the most time with spent hours on their phones ignoring them. Phubbing (snubbing someone for your phone) doesn’t feel good when it happens to you and we’re all guilty of it. Make a resolution that when a choice is presented between a person or a screen, to always choose the person. And seek out opportunities to connect in person more in 2021. We’ve all had enough of video calls to last a decade.

#5 Find mindful alternatives

We’ve written a lot about the joys of yoga, crafting, cookery and puzzles but your mindful activity doesn’t have to be any of these. Simply find something you can do off screens which utterly absorbs you and enables you to completely switch off from everything else going on around you. When we are in a mindful state, also called being ‘in flow’, it gives our brains time to rest and leaves us feeling rested and rejuvenated,. Make 2021 the year you find, or rediscover, what this activity is for you.

#6 Tame notifications

The silicon valley tech companies that design the hardware and software we’re all so in thrall to, make them very difficult to ignore. They buzz, vibrate, ring and interrupt us constantly. With an average of 40 apps on each of our smartphones that’s a lot of notifications. Make 2021 the year you radically cut down on the notifications you get from your smartphone which pull you away from what you’re doing and interrupt your focus. Be ruthless about which notifications are essential and which you can leave behind in 2020. The fewer notifications you get, the better.

#7 Press pause regularly

If you can’t get outside, we want you to at least try some mini-pauses away from your screens, indoors. We suggest you actually schedule these like regular dates with yourself in your diary. That way work and distractions won’t just bleed into time you’ve carved out for yourself. Fifteen minutes, just you and a cup of tea, staring out the window or listening to music, with no smartphone in your hand is a good place to start.

#8 Go audio

When we spend too much time on screens our eyes start to become very sore and ‘gritty’ with the reduced blinking we do. Digital eye strain is on the rise and last year we spent hours more time staring at screens than usual. We suggest that you look for audio alternatives wherever you can to staring at screens in 2021. Podcasts are a brilliant place to start for your entertainment alternatives (we’d love you to try out ours), and audio calls rather than video calls, are another good strategy. Make it your goal to find as many ways as possible to substitute audio for video in 2021.

#9 Keep track (but not obsessively)

If you want to cut down on screen use in 2021 you need to know what the starting point is. Built-in features on iPhones and android devices can all tell you how many hours you’re currently spending on your screens. Don’t get obsessive about tracking, as we think that’s pretty unhealthy too, but arm yourself with the knowledge on the size of the problem right now. Then take action. Check back again in a week or so, to see if any of your changes have made a difference. Then tweak and repeat. Think of it like calorie counting, not a habit you’d want to do for life, but very useful every now and again to get information on your habits.

#10 Eliminate digital junk food

Talking of calories, the last of our digital detox resolutions is about working out what’s healthy and what isn’t, about your existing screen use. “But we need our screens for connection, for work, for navigation” we hear whenever the subject of digital detox comes up. Well, of course you do. But you know as well as we do, that that type of screen use isn’t the problem. It’s the two hours you spend on Instagram when you only jumped on to check the latest updates. It’s the hours spent doom scrolling when you meant to check one news site for the headlines. In the same way that you know what food is healthy and what’s junk, the best thing you can do for yourself in 2021 is to work out the same for your screen use. We bet you know already where the problem areas are. Tackle them! If you can keep the productive and inspiring aspects of the digital world, cutting down on the toxic and time-wasting, this will be the most life-enhancing of all of our digital detox resolutions. Good luck, we’re rooting for you!

If you need more practical help and inspiration, our digital detox course has a 40% discount until 31st January 2021, with the discount code NEWYEAR40, to help you with all your digital detox and digital wellbeing resolutions this year.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

10 Things We Learned About Screens in 2020

We learned a lot in 2020. In January, most of us had never heard of coronavirus, let alone understood pandemic modelling, vaccine trials and mask legislation. But 2020 hasn’t just taught us about COVID-19. Through lockdowns all across the globe, we learnt more about ourselves and others than ever before; how we interact, work, live and what we need to do all of that all successfully. 2020 was the year of the screen. We all stayed home to work, learn and connect online. Here’s our round-up of the Top Ten things we learned about screens this year, and how they impacted us, both for good and for bad.

#1 They helped us connect

The best aspect about lockdown was the new avenues created to connect with our loved ones online. Suddenly Zoom quizzes sprang up in every spare evening, families called regularly and despite a lack of plans, everyone was kept up-to-date. Although we are living through an incredibly stressful time, screens helped us to connect and for that we will be forever grateful.

#2 They showed us we CAN work remotely

We also learnt that (for the most part) we can work from home. It may be challenging, complicated by housemates and children underfoot, shared workspaces, poor wifi and more, but it is possible. It’s been so successful that many are considering moving their workforce to remote working, or at least hybrid working– potentially changing the shape of office work forever.

#3 They inspired creativity and innovation

We were not only treated to new forms of connection, we were also able to watch incredible entertainment created around the restrictions of COVID. The Old Vic hosted virtual productions of ‘A Christmas Carol‘ whilst Comic Relief put on a Zoom-based Cinderella pantomime, both with great success. Despite the losses the entertainment industry, (amongst others), suffered this year the restrictions have inspired amazing innovation.

#4 They impacted our mental health

If we were ever in doubt that excessive screen-use impacts our mental health, 2020 cured us of that. One study found a significant correlation between COVID-19 lockout and the increase in mental health struggles in the UK which they linked definitively to the increase in screen-use associated with the coronavirus restrictions.

#5 They bred doom-scrollers everywhere

We’ve highlighted the issue of doom-scrolling before. It’s the act of mindlessly scrolling through one negative story after another in an endless cycle. Due to all that extra time, and a tsunami of bad news, this bad habit boomed in 2020, leading to many falling deeper into negativity and anxiety as they were unable to switch off.

#6 They helped conspiracies spread too easily

Our founder, Tanya Goodin, has written about the difficulties arising from the prevalent spread of conspiracies online. Whether it is QAnon, anti-vaxxer or plan-demic related, many conspiracies have risen to prominence in 2020. Fake News, mistrust of the media and isolation have all worked in tandem to create an environment rich for manipulation, and too many of us are falling for it. If you’re worried about someone in your life falling foul of a conspiracy theory, we recommend listening to our podcast with Prof. Emily Bell on the subject, or you could read Goodin’s article for some tips.

#7 They made our sleep deteriorate

Since the dawn of Time To Log Off we’ve been highlighting the impacts of screens on our quality of sleep. Before the pandemic, 42% of adults missed out on sleep due to excess screens, in 2020 this has dramatically increased. Good quality sleep is one of the main building blocks of life and essential for maintaining good mental health. So, we recommend limiting screen use, especially before bed and in the bedroom. Take back control of your sleep habits.

#8 They showed us online learning is flawed

No matter how hard education professionals globally have tried to make online learning work for both students and teachers, it has had its problems. Primary school children often struggle to focus without in-person supervision. Some have even pointed out that social (as well as academic) development will slip during this time. Screens, though useful to fill the gap while schools were closed, could not do everything an inspiring teacher can do.

#9 They made us want to log off

Over 3/4 of American families committed to taking part in a digital detox after lockdown, due to their experience of increased screen usage during the pandemic. We found we all needed time to decompress without screens this year. The ways we have used screens in 2020 has meant that our work, interaction and entertainment were all totally reliant on them. Most of us felt a large change with this shift online, and acknowledged the need for time logged off.

#10 They highlighted there’s no substitute for in-person interaction

Despite the many positives that screens have brought us in 2020, we learned that they can never be a substitute for face-to-face interactions. Whilst we are restricted by the pandemic, we have to use screens for work and for connecting with loved ones but it has taught us without a doubt that we need to prioritise human interactions over screen-based ones.

One thing 2020 taught us, is to appreciate the many advantages of the digital world as well as highlighting its flaws. We’ve spent many years trying to show what we miss out on when we spend too much time online and 2020 emphasised that for everyone. Let’s look forward to 2021, when we can spend much less time in the virtual world and appreciate the real world once more.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

Our Top 10 digital detox blogs of 2020

In 2020 we were glued to our screens like never before.  Was a digital detox going to be an idea that had simply had its time, we wondered? The irony was, we’d spent six years trying to show everyone what they miss out when they spend too much time on screens – and the pandemic did our job for us. We all flocked to our devices, and we were very grateful they were there, but never have we been so aware of what they couldn’t do for us.  Never have we all missed human contact so much.

Record numbers of you came to our site (up 35% on 2019), to get help and guidance in managing your screens healthily this year. We carried on producing our podcast right the way through the year, and we produced digital detox blogs and articles every week on topics you requested. Here, at the end of this rollercoaster year, is a round-up of our 10 most popular posts from 2020:

10. Six Ways to Beat Social Media Addiction

Social media, and our struggle with it, was a real theme this year. Our post at #10 on the year’s list gave you some ideas on how you could beat your addiction to scrolling, in a year when everyone found putting their devices away especially hard.

9. A Brief History of Digital Detox

We thought we’d give you a bit of reading material around the subject of digital detox this year, so we laid out a timeline of how the trend has evolved. Users have been concerned about the impact of screen time on our mental and physical health since the dawn of the WorldWideWeb. We trawled through the records to show you that the history of anxiety about screens, and attempts to spend time off them, is as long as the history of screens itself.

 8. Ten Tricks to Stave Off Digital Burnout in Lockdown

As screen time mounted in the pandemic, everyone began to worry about how frazzled and burnt out they were feeling, especially from all those video calls. So we produced this piece to look at screen burnout specifically, and what you could do to keep it at bay.

7. Screens and Covid-19

Of course, we produced a lot of content focused particularly around the pandemic and what it meant for our screen habits. In this blog we looked at how we could distinguish between a healthy and productive use of screens and how we could guard against the type of unhealthy habits which were becoming amplified as we spent more and more time on devices.

6. 6 tips for distance learning in lockdown

Learning from home was a big topic this year as parents and children alike grappled with how to manage it from bedrooms, kitchens and sofas across the globe. We gathered tips from experts on how to make distance learning work, and how not to let it stress you out.

5. Smartphones and coronavirus

As the pandemic hit, this blog looked at whether we needed to worry about our smartphones themselves as a source of virus transmission, as well as how we could use them to get the most up-to-date and trustworthy information about its spread. We talked about misinformation and the multiplying of conspiracies about the virus here too.

4. Our 2020 Digital Detox Resolutions

Every year we produce a series of resolutions on our screen habits (we’ll be doing one for 2021), and it’s always one of our most popular blogs. Looking back to the beginning of this year, it’s fascinating to see what we thought we might achieve this year. Spending less time on screens turned out not to be one of them!

3. TikTok is not safe for kids

TikTok started 2020 on a strong footing and absolutely boomed in the pandemic as kids (and adults) used it to keep connected and entertain themselves. We’ve always had very big concerns about this platform and felt we had to warn you about some of the dangers. We obviously hit the spot as this was one of our Top 3 most read blogs this year.

2. 7 Signs of Social Media Addiction

Our second most popular blog revealed what you were all most worried about this year. “Am I addicted to social media” was one of the primary ways people searched for, and found, our site in 2020 and this blog tried to help with laying out some signs and symptoms to be aware of. We hope it helped!

Which led us to…

1. How to Do Dopamine Fasting Right

Our No.1 post this year was about the ‘new’ phenomenon of dopamine fasting. Which of course is pretty much a digital detox by another, cooler, new name! We talked about the differences and similarities and how to do one and you read this piece in your thousands. We really hope it meant you also tried it, and put screens down for some of your year.

2020 has been a year, for everyone. It’s safe to say it took all our plans and through them up in the air – like all of yours. But, we realised very early on that the demand for our digital detox expertise was actually going to keep growing this year as everyone grappled with enforced screen time, and it really did. You downloaded our podcasts and you kept reading our blogs in numbers that surpassed anything we had seen before. We hope they helped in some way. Do let us know!

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

5 Ways to Stay Off Screens this Christmas

2020 has been a hard year. It’s also been a screen-filled year as we all connected with our loved ones, worked and even taught our kids on screens. After such a year it’s understandable that many of us want to log off for the holidays and enjoy a screen-free Christmas, but that’s easier said than done, especially if you are spending Christmas alone. So, we’ve put together five tips to help you stay away from screens as much as possible this year, and finally unwind.

#1 Schedule screen-time

2020 is an unusual year. Normally we would recommend putting down screens entirely, at least on the big day. However, this year most of the South of the UK will be isolated in Tier 4 and the rest of the country will only be able to visit one household. This means that many of us will spend time video calling our loved ones, trying to spend time with them on Christmas Day, especially if we are spending the holidays alone. Our advice is to schedule that screen time. Book in calls in advance and try to only use your devices for that communication. By all means, call family and friends, but don’t spend the hours between those calls mindlessly doom scrolling, especially with all the bad news out there this year!

#2 Phone-free food

Whilst we may not be able to achieve an entirely screen-free Christmas, the least we can all aim for is a screen-free meal, (like we all managed only a couple of decades ago). So, we recommend instituting a phone box for everyone to put their devices in during the meal, so that you can all focus on the food and truly appreciate the people you are with. You’ll be able to have a much better conversation. And even if you’re alone you will appreciate the ability to mindfully eat without distraction.

#3 Analogue activities

Another great way to keep yourself (and your family) offline for a screen-free Christmas is to organise analogue activities to take up some of your phone time. You could do a puzzle, play a board game, read a book, or just sit and snack whilst you listen to some Christmas carols. A firm favourite at Time to Log Off is the Hat Game. This involves everyone putting names of celebs (or at least people everyone at the gathering knows) into a hat, and then in teams one person describing all the people they pick out with one minute on the clock, until the hat is empty. You can even add more rounds with a limit on words, or make it charades!

#4 Get outside

One of the best ways to ensure you have a blissfully uninterrupted Christmas is to go outside. MIND recommend spending time outside to help with your mental health, something we all probably need after 2020. On top of that, going outside is also a great way to take your focus away from your screen, you could even leave it behind! We recommend a Christmas walk to get yourself moving again after dinner, but you could also just sit in a garden, or even go for a bike ride if you’re feeling particularly restless.

#5 Lead by example

If you want to create an environment free of screens for your family, or housemates, this Christmas, the best thing you can do is to lead by example. If you’re not on your phone at dinner, whilst playing a game, or as you talk, hopefully they will catch the hint and put theirs down more too. If the people you’re trying to convince are family that might be harder, but as long as you are taking part in screen-free Christmas as much as you are asking them to, you should be in with a good chance to get some analogue time this year.

From everyone at Time to Log Off we wish you a happy Christmas!

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

Was 2020 The Year Of Peak Screen?

2020 was the year when screen time simply soared. Our jobs, education and our social lives all moved online. And when lockdown was enforced, we turned even more to screen-based activities to fill all that newly freed-up time.

We advocate for a healthy digital-life balance and regular time away from screens, but, we have to admit, not all of the uses those extra screen hours were put to were bad.

In fact, we think this year has seen us collectively use our screens in a lot of very beneficial ways:

#1 Staying connected

This year we all began to dedicate much more time in our week to talk to our friends and family. In fact, many admit they have been talking to loved ones more regularly this year than ever before. As we all became more comfortable with Zoom, and finally had an incentive to download Skype, casually video-calling those close to us has become a large, and enjoyable, part of our lives.

#2 Entertainment

With theatres and cinemas shut, shows, films, and performances were all brought online. In the UK, the National Theatre’s ‘At Home’ project saw 16 past productions uploaded to YouTube for free, making theatre more accessible than ever before. And let’s not forget how many of us became regular attendees of all those virtual pub quizzes.

#3 Education

Whilst pub quizzes may not have been strictly educational, they weren’t the only form of learning our screens enabled. School and universities courses were moved online, mostly very successfully, as institutions found new ways to deliver education remotely, without compromising the quality. And if that wasn’t enough, more people spent time on educational apps; Duolingo saw an all-time usage high during the pandemic, as everyone decided to use all that spare time to finally try and learn another language.

Against all that good though, we have been aware of the bad, and downright ugly, screen habits that emerged in this 2020 Year of Screens.

#1 Doomscrolling

A combination of a natural urge to check the news with a lot of free time, led many of us to develop the bad habit of ‘doomscrolling‘ ie endlessly seeking out and scrolling through a torrent of negative news stories online. A non-stop diet of negative news has a really negative toll on our mental health. We hope this is a habit that we’re all going to manage to kick in 2021.

#2 Zoom fatigue and digital burnout

Several hours a day spent on Zoom or Teams calls, whether for work or education, took a toll on us. The constant staring at a screen is good for neither our physical or mental health, but was sometimes unavoidable as our world shifted online. Dry eyes and tech neck were some of the physical symptoms reported. And then there was the disorientation of not being able to read and interpret non-verbal signals on a screen, as efficiently as we can in real life. All those video calls were exhausting and we soon found ourselves burnt out.

#3 Social media usage

Inevitably this tear, our time spent on social media surged. Alongside it, the negative effects experienced by those addicted to social media intensified. Whilst adopted enthusiastically to decrease isolation, prolonged amounts of time spent on social platforms where toxic comparison culture flourishes, can really take a toll on our mental health.

In 2020 tech was a lifeline. We were able to attend the theatre from our sofa, follow art classes from our bedrooms, and finally persuade our grandparents to download Skype. In a rather isolating year, screens gave us the chance to stay connected. However, we may look back on this year as the year we finally realised that screens, efficient though they are, can’t ever really replace the warmth and depth of our real-world connections. Will we look back on 2020 as the year we reached peak screen, and the year we finally decided to kick all our bad tech habits for good? Here’s hoping.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

We’re dreaming of a Screen-Free Christmas

In 2020 we spent more time online than ever before. Australia reported an 80% increase in phone usage over their first lockdown, in the UK our screen-time increased twofold and in the US nearly 75% of families said they wanted a digital detox once it was over. And, it’s not quite over! We still have to get through the holiday season and well into next year before vaccines can solve our problems.

So, after a year of excessive screen use and isolation, we’re gearing up to spend what is for many the most important time of the year, potentially away from loved ones again. We’re going to have to be even more mindful about our screen use than usual. Ideally, we would be experiencing a completely screen-free Christmas, but as many of us are away from family and friends, that might not possible. Instead, let’s focus on the best ways to connect, both digitally and in real life.

The joys of screens to connect us

Previously, we’ve always touted a need to log off on Christmas, to stop posting every second of your day and instead appreciate the people you are spending it with. However, with so many families physically separated, we’re advocating a very mindful screen-use this year instead. This year we have all thanked the Zoom gods at one point or another for the ability to communicate with those we can’t be with. Whether elderly or vulnerable family members, friends who live a little too far away to justify a socially-distanced walk, or even those that we haven’t seen in a while, we’ve all been able to keep up with loved ones through video calls through lockdowns. As we approach December 25th, there are plans being made up and down the country for time slots to call different sides of the family, or different friends who are spending Christmas alone this year. However, that doesn’t mean we should https://www.answeraddiction.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=625078&action=edit&swcfpc=1#edit_timestamplock ourselves away on video call after video call for the whole day.

Tip: Really enjoy and savour your video calls with family and friends. Don’t multi-screen by scrolling on your phone while you’re on the call., Give them your complete focus and enjoy your time with them on screen.

Be mindful of those we are with

You may be quarantined with your pet, the housemates that you’ve survived two lockdowns with, your family or a new bubble of those you haven’t been able to spend time with in a while. No matter how big or small your group, how familiar and irritating they may be, try to really appreciate their presence this year. Regardless of how many people you are celebrating with this year, take some time offline to really be with them. Don’t share every present/course on your Insta story, try not to stay in the mindset of working from home and check your emails, and most importantly stay away from a doom-scroll, guaranteed to ruin your mood. Talk to the people you are with: make a puzzle, play a game of charades, ask each other questions about how the year was for them – and celebrate.

Tip: Get everyone to put their devices away together for a specified period of time (maybe while you are eating, or opening presents, or go for a long walk together). Give yourselves the space to really enjoy and appreciate each other’s presence.

After this year, of all years, we should celebrate those we love. We’re still here, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of vaccines. So, take some time to enjoy the company of your loved ones, to bask in the annoyances and petty squabbles of the festive season, and try to switch off your phone. As much as you can, aim for a screen-free Christmas after your year online. Use your screens for life-enhancing connection, not mindless scrolling, this holiday.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

The Dangers Of Fake News

Conspiracy theories have always circulated online, but this year has seen them manifest themselves particularly dramatically. From the attacks on UK 5G masts in Spring, to the refusal to wear masks on public transport, the dangerous effects of fake news have been made especially visible in 2020.

Those following conspiracies online this year have increased startlingly. According to Concordia University researcher Marc-André Argentino, Facebook groups set up to spread conspiracies, linked to notorious conspiracy theory QAnon, saw an over 3000% increase in membership, within just two months from July this year.

The internet is a fantastically powerful tool to share information rapidly and widely, and of course, this is often abused. Social media especially facilitates the almost instantaneous sharing of stories and facts, true or not. We saw in this in the rise of the fake news phenomenon over the past few years. But why is it that people have become especially susceptible to it this year?

We all felt the state of anxiety the pandemic plunged us into this year. The confusion brought about by such an unprecedented event has left many eager to find alternative explanations for the events of the year. Combine this with the fact that most of us have spent much more time online this year (likely than ever before) and the result is we have all been exposed to a much bigger volume of conspiracy content than in prior years.

When followers of the discredited conspiracy theory QAnon really began to take off, FaceBook announced that it would be removing any content and groups related to it on its platform. Unfortunately this proved unsuccessful as a means of curbing the spread. QAnon groups continued to grow, and, most worryingly, The New York Times even found that Facebook algorithms were pointing certain users towards the groups.

For now, it’s is up to all of us to keep ourselves safe from fake news. How can we do this?

#1 Read before you share

Critical thinking is the most important step towards protecting ourselves from falling for conspiracy theories online. Our love for a constant stream of news has made us a little too trigger-happy when it comes to sharing information online. Before retweeting a headline, or sharing something to your story, it is vital that you give yourself time to investigate yourself whether you are sharing something which is true. Unfortunately, the majority of people don’t do this. Research from Columbia University found that 59% of links shared on social media are shared without ever being read.

#2 Fact check before sharing

When you do read the content, fact check before sharing. Data can be manipulated (sometimes, simply fabricated) to ‘sell’ a particular argument, many people simply share figures without crosschecking them. Look for reputable news sources to cross-check against. Where data is concerned, look for the source of the data in the news piece and go directly to view the data yourself.

#3 Analyse motivation

Always consider the motivations of the body or organisation publishing the information. What have they got to gain from this particularly story? Is it likely they are biased? Is there another side to the story they are not reporting? Analysing the motivation of everyone who publishes information online is a good habit to get into. 

#4 Limit consumption

Finally, consider your news gathering habits online. It’s good to get your news from a variety of sources, but not to the point of doomscrolling. Being unable to log-off leaves you vulnerable to more sensationalist, often fake, news. Ensure that you have a balanced and healthy tech-life balance. This will keep things in perspective.

With coronavirus vaccines now on the horizon, there are growing worries that anti-vaxx conspiracy theories may cause them to be met with resistance. This could lead to a reduced take-up and a continuing spread of the virus. In a global health crisis, it’s more important than ever before that we are able to distinguish between reality and conspiracy online.

 

 

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6 Productivity Tips for Parents Working at Home

Working from home is tough for anyone and having to do it for 8+ months has had a massive impact on the productivity of the nation with 39% of people stating in June that they felt less productive working from home. We bet that has only risen in the following months, especially for parents. With home-schooling, work meetings, projects and housekeeping on our plates it is no wonder that parents are beginning to feel the strain. Earlier in the year we gave some tips for how to remain productive and a healthy digital balance whilst working from home, now we have something to help those who are not only trying to balance their own screen use, but that of their children too.

#1 Swap child-caring shifts

If you are lucky enough be living with your child(ren)’s other parent then our first tip is to take advantage! If you have an important meeting (aka Zoom call), then your partner can take their lunch break early to keep the kids quiet. If your partner has a deadline coming up you can shoulder more of the burden for that week by working in the room with the kids, so that they are undisturbed and can focus fully. Your rota doesn’t have to be set in stone but if you can work out regular times when one parent can oversee the children each week to lighten the load, you will be amazed what you can achieve in those stolen undisturbed hours.

#2 Create a physical work space

As in our previous blog we can tell you that creating a defined workspace is one of the best ways to improve your screen-life balance and maintain a good level of productivity. If you have children, then it is unlikely that you can work effectively in the living space (unless they are doing online school from their rooms) so you may have to get more creative. Perhaps you can work from your bedroom, sitting at the other end of your bed or take over a child’s room during the day, if they are occupied elsewhere.

#3 Increase productivity with working hours

In order to get work done, it can be tempting to work at all hours whenever you have a moment in a haphazard manner. However, this is not the best for productivity. We recommend enforcing working hours. They don’t have to be 9-5. If you have toddlers and your job is flexible, you could work during nap time, a couple of hours when your partner is with them, and a few hours after dinner when they are in bed for example. Try to stick to this routine as it will enable you to plan your work better and get more done in a shorter period of time. It will also help you relax in your ‘off’ time.

Bonus: even with older, more independent children try to work in ‘bursts’. Set yourself achievable goals within smaller periods of time (such as ‘finish this proposal by lunch’) and then take regular breaks to get up and see your kids. This way you can stick to deadlines more easily and spend more time with your children: win-win!

#4 Screen-free childcare

One of the easiest ways to ensure that your kids are occupied whilst you get some work done is to put them in front of the TV or give them a phone to play with. However, this is going to be detrimental to their development, especially if they are already spending hours a day at online school. Research presented at the 2017 Paediatric Academic Societies Meeting found that every extra 30 minutes of device time (e.g. phone) is linked to a 49% increased risk of expressive speech delay in children under two years of age. Try not to fall into this trap. For younger kids, you could set them up with play dough, building blocks or dolls and work in the same room as them to supervise; ideally taking a break every 30 mins to play with them for a while and then set them off on a new task. This will also encourage your productivity to increase in those shorter periods of time. With older children, you could give them books, puzzles, games and competitions (if you have more than one) to keep them occupying themselves and each other for as long as possible.

#5 Work with your kids

If your kids are old enough you can explain to them the importance behind being left alone for short periods of time and reward them for letting you work. You could use a trusty sticker chart to measure their behaviour for example and reward them with their favourite dinner, a family game night or anything else they would like. Another way to frame this would be to cut out all screen time after dinner and make sure you all play together each evening so that you still get plenty of face time and updates from your kids, without them having to interrupt you every 10 minutes. Obviously, this won’t work for everyone and certainly not all the time but you could use it in increments. For example, you could ask your child to read a new book whilst you are in a meeting as a favour to you so that they can explain it to you afterwards. This way you combine an element of responsibility with time spent with you and guarantee yourself some uninterrupted time.

#6 Cut yourself some slack

Last but not least, it’s important to cut yourself some slack. Whether you are trying to pull teenagers away from their screens or keep three children under five entertained whilst you work, parenting is tough and it has only got tougher this year. If you slip up occasionally, it’s OK. However, every small step you can take towards keeping your children off screens that are unrelated to school while you’re working, will not only do wonders for your productivity, it will also do wonders for their wellbeing.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

What The US Election Results Mean For Online Privacy Laws

Online privacy and data collection was thrust into the limelight after the 2016 US Election, four years on has any progress been made on protecting our privacy and personal data online?

In the lead up to the 2016 US election, the Trump campaign team invested largely in Facebook ads. This campaign was facilitated with the assistance of London based political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. For campaign ads to be most effective they needed to be precisely targetted, so detailed information on voters would need to be compiled. Cambridge Analytica’s strategy was to harvest data from at least 50 million private Facebook profiles in a scandal which was widely covered by mainstream media at the time. Many remain convinced that this influenced the election results.

Four years later, the US are yet to have a federal data privacy law. However, following the European Union’s implementation of their General Data Protection Regulation in 2018, it is almost certain that one is around the corner.

To continue to share data and hence do business with the EU, Washington will have to abide by the GDPR by matching US levels of data protection to it. To have inconsistent levels of data protection between different states would wreak havoc for businesses operating over multiple states. Hence, it is in the interests of the US economy to implement a federal data protection law.

So whichever party had won in 2020, a federal data protection law would likely have been on the upcoming agenda. In fact, this time last year, Democrats and Republicans reached a rare agreement in that there was a need for one. However, their methods of establishing it remain far from bipartisan.

Both parties presented bills which demanded greater transparency and consumer control from companies collecting data. However, whereas Republicans advocated for a more economically driven bill with their Consumer Data Protection Act (for example, by removing any existing, stricter data laws within states), Democrats seemed to be more focused on ethical data practices and the protection of civil rights . These were laid out in their proposed Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act.

Inevitably, this year, discussion of these bills was largely pushed aside, as all focus shifted onto dealing with Covid19. Control of the pandemic is likely to remain the centre-stage. However, in a bid to protect and promote the US economy, a GDPR-like bill may soon be ushered in so to facilitate business with the EU.

It’s likely that Kamala Harris herself may turn the spotlight back on the need for privacy laws. Harris’ meticulous questioning of Mark Zuckerberg in 2018’s Cambridge Analytica data breach hearing reaffirmed that data privacy is a top priority of hers. As past California Attorney General, she has always had a close eye on Silicon Valley, and especially the collection, commercialisation and exploitation of data, telling the New York Times: “I believe that the tech companies have got to be regulated in a way that we can ensure and the American consumer can be certain that their privacy is not being compromised”.

However, as of December 2020, there is still no bill, and until one is passed, the onus lies on consumers to protect themselves and their data online. Users very often fail to read terms and conditions of sites and apps they sign up to, one survey found that over 90% of consumers accept legal terms and conditions without reading them, putting convenience over consequences. But it’s crucial that all consumers make themselves aware of the variation between sites’ and companies’ privacy terms, and understand what data is being collected about them.

Ultimately, the large quantity of data companies are able to harvest from us reflects on us and our relationship with our tech and online spaces. Yes, scandals such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal are shocking displays of how data we release can be exploited, but it should also be a wake-up call to re-evaluate how much we are giving away online. If our online habits dominated our daily lives less, of course, this would reduce the significance of much of the data we give away.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com