What with all the social media networks we try to keep up with on a daily basis for work and for pleasure, it is no wonder your mind goes into overload. In fact, according to CNN, Americans spend at least eight hours a day staring at a screen. And more than one-third of smartphone users get online before they get out of bed.
Some experts say everyone should take a tech vacation from time to time for several reasons — to reconnect with family and friends, to stop missing special moments of real life, to relieve the stress of trying to maintain your various social media accounts and even to do physical activities such as exercising.
Toi Barnhardt unplugs on her own regularly —and she’s in the tech industry. “Unplugging is basically me taking control over what I like to call ‘social media saturation.’ Almost every facet of one’s life has some aspect of social media or social networking intertwined in it. It has us constantly checking for the latest deal, or the latest status update every hour almost. It allows us to falsely feel connected to people, places, and things when in fact we aren’t physically,” says Barnhardt, who is the associate publisher of the Women of Color in Technology STEM Conference. “By unplugging, it forces me to connect with people the traditional or dare I now say the old fashionedway! The main reason however that I unplug is when I feel that the constant social media interacting is making me unproductive i.e. work, home, and even (I’ll admit) while driving.”
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