Are you ready for a detox?

In honour of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, GulfWeekly has taken up the ‘digital detox’ challenge where our ‘24x7 alert’ reporters dared to ‘switch off’ for 24 hours! That means – no gadgets and no social media. This week, a section of them share their experience first-hand.

I went offline for a full day last weekend, out of curiosity, and to see how it would affect my mental health.

I wanted to see what would emerge in the quiet, in the spaces usually filled by pings, scrolling, and screen glow.

To make it through, I prepped the night before, like I was packing for a miniature expedition.

My survival kit was analogue and modest: a Casio A168 to keep time, a small field notebook with my to-do list and gym workout handwritten from my phone, and a book for company. Without my phone to default to, the day stretched open.

I read. I wrote. I did laundry, went grocery shopping, hit the gym, and later, joined a writers’ meet.

The only time I had to reach for my phone was to make payments.

Boredom was the most surprising challenge. Not the kind that comes from having nothing to do, but the kind that shows up when emotions go unchecked.

When frustration and restlessness crept in, I noticed how often my instinct was to distract myself with a screen.

Without the option, I had to sit with those feelings, or channel them into action.

I won’t pretend I’ve had an epiphany or that I’ll be tossing my phone anytime soon.

The reality of my work makes a full-day detox impractical most of the time.

But I do want to carve out more intentional windows - four to six hours of no notifications, feeds or distractions.

A day offline wasn’t revolutionary. But it was revealing.

- Naman Arora

Spending a day without my phone was surprisingly grounding, even with an unexpected hiccup.

I had planned a quiet, gadget-free Friday, with a bit of shopping, of course.

The morning was peaceful, I made a tea, read a book, exercised at the gym and played with my lovely cat, Luna.

It was strange at first to not check social media, but I came to love it as I realised that the overload of information aggravated my anxiety. 

After I finished my morning routine, I decided to go to the mall and do some shopping to kill time. Then came the curveball – I got into my car and it wouldn’t start!

I reluctantly pulled out my phone and after Googling a few questions and realising the battery was dead, I called my car rental company’s roadside assistance.

Once the battery was replaced, I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the day without being on my phone, aside from a quick text from my editor about an article.

However, that brief emergency did not pull me back into the digital world, but it did make me question whether I could truly live without a phone.

The modern world has become increasingly reliant on Google, ChatGPT and social media apps to fix problems and provide information on a range of topics.

And, while these tools are useful, it reminded me that they shouldn’t be a constant, but rather a tool we use on occasion to make our lives easier.

- Julia Cassano

One thing that social media time took away from me is my passion for reading.

I used to be able to read an 800-page book in around two to three weeks, now I can barely read 20 pages a day without getting distracted or tired!

So I decided to use my afternoon time to read as I embarked on my detox challenge.

By the 70-page mark, my mom called me to help her, ironically, with technical problems she was having with her own phone, and I ended up spending some time in the living room with my family until it was time to go meet up with my friends for our board game night at around 6pm.

I did use WhatsApp to text them agreeing on a time, because it was easier than calling each one of them individually, but other than that I did not even feel the desire to open any apps.

I had a great time with my friends, until around 1am and then headed home.

Though I give myself time off social media often, I allow myself to go on YouTube, so this time I wanted to see if I could go on without it. It definitely was extremely difficult, and the first thing I did after the 24 hours passed was to treat myself to a one-hour video essay! And what a treat that was.

- Rima Alhaddad