Viewing Snapchat or Instagram stories at breakfast, tweeting during the day and "matching" on Tinder at bedtime, this is the daily life of many French people, at work or on vacation.
As Vincent Dupin, founder of Into the Tribe and "digital detox" coach, points out, the hope of
likes
, reactions and comments releases dopamine, a molecule in the brain associated with pleasure, but also a lot of frustration.
Overview of tips for unplugging during the holidays with the disconnection specialist and Maria Hejnar, clinical psychologist.
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Become aware of your addiction
By dint of being hyperconnected on social networks, it can be difficult to come back to reality.
To remedy this and take a step back from your addiction, clinical psychologist Maria Hejnar advises to take a look at the clock, which "helps to raise the level of consciousness".
In order to get an idea of the time spent on social networks, it is now possible to observe its activity on applications, like Facebook or Instagram.
In practice, all you have to do is go to the "Settings" tab of both applications, then go to the "Your activity" section on Instagram or "Your time spent" on Facebook.
Demonstrate willpower
But recognizing addiction is not enough to disconnect.
“Motivation is necessary,” insists the clinical psychologist.
According to coach Vincent Dupin, you have to exercise real self-discipline to put an end to this addiction.
For those wishing to keep their smartphone at hand, it will therefore be a question of disconnecting mobile applications at certain times of the day, of adjusting the display of notifications to be alerted at times defined in advance or of putting their smartphone in "do not disturb" or "airplane" mode.
During the holidays, the psychotherapist even recommends setting time slots without a phone.
“During an outing or activity with family or friends, you leave your laptop at your place of residence,” suggests the specialist.
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Use apps to disconnect
If weaning is difficult, disconnection applications such as OFFTIME or Flipd (download from the Apple Store or Google Play) can be installed on the phone.
The latter aim to reduce our excessive distractions on connected objects.
They offer a total lock mode to hide applications and games on mobile, while leaving the possibility of making calls.
Added to this are more relaxing features like listening to a list of soothing white noise music, meditation or motivational audio sessions.
Go to "white zones"
Who says mobile application, also says internet connection.
If we remove the latter, impossible, therefore, to indulge in his favorite indulgence.
According to the list drawn up by the government in 2015, a total of 541 small towns would be in white areas, in other words without 3G or 4G access.
The Grand Est (89 zones) and the Occitanie region (151 zones) are the most affected.
Opting for a holiday in these places, "it's the right way to forge deep ties with loved ones while enjoying the present moment", confirms Vincent Dupin.
Return to primary phone functionality
What if the problem came from the appearance of the applications?
"They are designed to make people dependent, with an ever more attractive design and colors", observes Vincent Dupin.
In order to facilitate weaning, the expert in "digital detox" invites to distort the marketing of these applications by changing the colorimetry of the phone screen to switch it to black and white.
To do this, simply go to the settings of the smartphone.
iPhone users will go to the "Accessibility" tab and enable the "grayscale" choice.
As for users of Android devices, go to the "color filters" category to select this same option.
And if, with all these efforts, the
* This article, originally published in 2019, has been updated.
