Balancing the Scales: Tech’s Impact on Mental Health & Solutions for Harmony
Having access to technology 24/7 is a double-edged sword. While having a mobile supercomputer in our hands can more easily link us to our loved ones, mental health resources, and an array of tools and apps for productivity, it can also lead to increased stress and anxiety, a weaker work-life balance, sleep disturbances, and negatively impacted self-esteem.
But how can we balance the use of technology to better care for mental health? We believe that intentional technology use can actually improve mental health. Let’s look at the brain to understand how technology affects our psyche.
Follow The Science
Pause for a moment. Consider your posture. Are you sitting up straight or hunched over your screen?
It’s easy to lose touch with our physical selves when our minds are immersed in our digital devices. Author Michael Sacasas explores the relationship between tech and society in his newsletter The Convivial Society, and considers how the body responds to interactions with technology.
“I think it was Linda Stone, a researcher who, a decade or more ago, coined the term email apnea to get at this interesting habit of breathing in a very shallow way when we’re interacting online. She’s expanded this beyond email to just our interactions with computers generally. And so that’s a very interesting bodily consequence of what we might ordinarily think of as a kind of purely intellectual activity,” Sacasas said in a 2022 podcast with Freedom.
Unfortunately, many digital platforms are designed to hook our attention for long periods of time, and prolonged screen time actually begins to negatively impact both physical and mental health. Here are a few ways our minds and bodies are affected.
- Disrupted Circadian Rhythm One study found that constant digital exposure can desynchronize the circadian cycle. The blue light from our scrolling through Tiktok or Instagram mimics daylight and suppresses the body’s production of melatonin, the hormone that requires darkness to relax the body for sleep. Even a few minutes of exposure can delay the body’s melatonin production by several hours. Without melatonin production, the brain can become inflamed and create hormonal imbalances, which have been linked to an increased chance of depression.
- Hyperstimulated Mind Most television, social media, and websites fill the brain with visual and cognitive stimulation, maintaining a state of hyperarousal while draining our mental reserves. As we get hooked on technology, our brains become addicted to dopamine and hyperarousal.
- Irritated Mood Both the dopamine and hyperarousal neural pathways suppress the frontal lobe, which is where the brain regulates mood and focus. The result? A state of constant distraction and irritability. This only becomes worse for users who frequently check the news online, where the latest climate disasters and humanitarian crises are the top stories of the day with no solutions in sight.
- Lowered Self-Image Social media deals heavy blows to self-esteem, and has been linked with increased depression and anxiety across age groups. Social networks can create a culture of self-comparison, cyberbullying, and a fear of missing out that keep users anxiously invested, whether they’re editing their bodies and faces or hopping on the next TikTok trend to stay relevant.
- Weakened Physical State Being hooked online often means spending hours being completely sedentary, which weakens your cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Our minds also don’t fully process the ingestion of a meal when our attention is on the television, which can lead to overconsumption of food. All this can lead to health problems down the road, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity that make it more difficult to be active again.
Tipping the Scales Back to Balance
Now that we’ve made the case for the detriments of technology, is it worth just throwing it away and moving to an off-grid cabin in the forest? While some people have made the switch to “dumb phones,” it’s pretty difficult to work or connect with others without technology in today’s world. Finding balance is possible!
Overuse of technology can lead the brain to develop addiction pathways that imbalance our dopamine response, according to Anna Lembke. In her Freedom podcast episode, she discusses how to rebalance our dopamine levels. The first step is a dopamine fast, a period of abstinence from technology, the drug of choice. This digital detox needs 30 days for dopamine homeostasis to be restored.
“Then after that 30-day period, I recommend that folks decide whether or not they want to continue absence or go back to using in moderation,” Lembke said. “And whether the goal is moderation or abstinence, I suggest what I call self-binding strategies. This is putting metacognitive and physical barriers in place to press the pause button between desire and consumption. So, it’s different from willpower. Willpower is what we exercise after we experience desire in an environment where we have ready access.”
Lembke has grouped her self-binding strategies into 3 categories: time, space, and category. The time strategy commits to using technology only on certain days of the week or hours of the day, but only after completing a major milestone. A space strategy creates a geographic barrier, like keeping tech out of the bedroom, turned off, or in some kind of safe.
The third strategy is categorical. According to Lembke, this may look like allowing yourself to watch the category of American Idol YouTube videos, but avoiding categories that put you in a hole, like Dr. Pimple Popper reels.
Creating space, time, and categorical zones of technology use are excellent boundaries to create a healthier relationship with digital devices. Here’s a few more steps you can take:
- Consider which sites and apps you visit the most to determine where you might need to create a limit; it’s easy to check on your phone’s settings.
- Do a quick digital decluttering: delete any apps you no longer use or want to use, turn off your push notifications, and ensure that you aren’t using multiple devices at a time.
- Instead of scrolling, use your free time to get your whole family involved in creative or active hobbies. Make your own journal with upcycled leather, join a local sports league, or cultivate an herb garden.
- However, employers have a responsibility to promote digital wellness habits. If you’re feeling unsatisfied with supervisors who demand you’re available 24/7, have a meeting to discuss digital wellness techniques for the benefit of everyone in the workplace.
Strategies for Digital Wellness
Once you’ve established some boundaries for your technology use, consider how you can use your tech time to invest in mindfulness and mental health instead of mindless scrolling. According to author Dr. Jillian Horton, gratitude and mindfulness practices actually have the power to reshape the neuroplasticity of the brain.
Horton describes gratitude as a toxic emotion receptor blocker. The mind can’t really hold two emotions at once. When you redirect your mind towards the good things, you make positive feelings and emotions last longer, actively engaging to correct a negativity bias.
According to Horton, we can actually increase oxytocin production by engaging in mindfulness practices. This tones the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body that mediates digestion and the mind-body connection.
“When we do things that affect our vagal nerve, we can actually improve its tone. We feel more of a sense of well-being, benevolence,” Horton said. “ The softening of our gaze, softening of our voice to a more calm and soothing tone, the higher we make our vagal nerve tone through certain kinds of meditation practices or focused attention practices, the more we get to benefit from all those things.”
Horton recommends starting with a few deep, grounding breaths if you can’t find time for meditation practice. If you can move up to 5 minutes from a few breaths, in time you may be able to increase your time meditating as your vagus nerve continues toning.
Meditation literally changes the brain. The amygdala, known as the primal brain, can actually shrink, while the prefrontal cortex, associated with high-level reasoning, grows thicker. With more emotional awareness, you can think clearer and have a stronger sense of self-control.
Horton also recommends engaging in breathwork to strengthen the vagus nerve. For beginners to mindfulness practices, there are several great apps that can help you get started with your breathwork, meditation, or gratitude journaling.
- Apps like Headspace and Calm are full of guided meditations and relaxing music that replenishes the prefrontal cortex’s cognitive reserves: a study found Headspace improved focus by 14% and significantly decreased mind-wandering. Another study found users who used Headspace for 10 days experienced increased positivity and well-being.
- The BetterHelp app offers accessible therapy sessions at an affordable price. Users can highlight their preferences in a therapist for personalized care, then contact their therapist through messages or calls anytime they need.
- Whenever you need to focus, plant a Forest. You open the app, set a timer, and put your phone down. While your mind is focusing on the present with a friend, a creative project, or a work task, Forest will plant and water a digital tree in 25 minutes. With enough sessions, you’ll soon have your own forest of focus!
- Still struggling to stay off Instagram? Freedom is an app that will block your selection of distracting apps and websites from both your computer and mobile device. By creating personalized blocklists, you’ll be forced to adhere to your rule of no emails after 5pm!
- Trying to build good habits? Streaks will help you accomplish your to-do list. You can choose or create up to 24 tasks you want to consistently achieve, and even choose the number of days you want to do something so you don’t break the streak, like “No junk food” Sunday through Thursday.
Prioritize Your Mental Health
As you evaluate your relationship with technology, consider your mental state. If you find yourself more irritable, negative, or sad lately, it may be time to make some fundamental changes with your digital devices. No matter what’s making you anxious or upset, it never hurts to take a break from the distractions on your devices to tune into the needs of your mind and body.
Whether you’re seeking to establish more firm boundaries with technology-free time and space, or utilize useful apps and tools to support your mental health, it’s possible to bring yourself back to balance. Freedom’s variety of features can help you stay focused on your self-care goals and stay away from digital distractions whether you need to block apps and websites or listen to ambient music that helps you focus on your mental health.
Written by Lorena Bally
