AI overload: Why experts say a digital detox is vital for mental health

“We use AI as a personal assistant; it can create text, images and video content, and craft our emails.

“It’s now a more active participant.”

Digital wellbeing expert Dr Lena Waizenegger said it was important for people to have breaks from their digital devices.

Waizenegger, who specialises in digital wellbeing, said summer holidays and long weekends were the perfect time to tear yourself away from the constant barrage of information.

Waizenegger said doing a digital detox – setting aside a period of time to refrain from using electronic devices – was like hitting the “reset button”.

Benefits include lowering stress and anxiety levels, and improved sleep.

“It gives our whole nervous system a break,” she said.

“If you go on a detox, you don’t have the urge to pick up your phone, check social media, or answer texts.

“If that’s not there we can connect on a deeper level … people have better interpersonal relationships.”

According to Anxiety NZ and Mental Health Foundation NZ, spending too much time online can have a negative impact on people’s mental and physical health.

Dr Lena Waizenegger said AI has changed the way people use technology. Photo / 123rf

Physical issues include eye strain, headaches, neck pain and obesity, while mental health problems include anxiety, depression, and sleep disruption.

Whether it’s Google, AI, or scouring social media and phone apps, screentime causes “an immediate dopamine hit”, Waizenegger said.

A dopamine hit is a sudden surge of the brain chemical dopamine that causes an intense feeling of pleasure and motivation, which reinforces the behaviour and makes you want to repeat it.

Excessive screen time, particularly social media and gaming, can trigger repeated, intense dopamine surges, creating a cycle of reward-seeking similar to drug or alcohol addiction.

Kerikeri-based counsellor Christine Macfarlane, from MindfulMe, said too much screentime could lead to a lack of creativity.

“When we go digital all the time, we lose our imagination and our ability to dream.

“We lose a sense of our relationship with our internal self … like any addiction it’s an instant fix.”

Kerikeri-based counsellor Christine Macfarlane said too much screentime could lead to a lack of creativity. Photo / Jenny Ling

Macfarlane said school counsellors were reporting that children and young people were finding it increasingly difficult to manage their emotions.

Often, parents looked for immediate solutions such as antidepressants, or anti-anxiety medications for their kids, she said.

“But it’s normal human behaviour to be up and down.

“When we’re bored, we create stuff in our mind, we become imaginative and creative, you’re looking at the world in a different way.

“When we’re busy online with a device, we’re not present in our body.

“If we don’t get it [a dopamine hit] straight away, and we’re noticing this with younger children, they’ll go into a hole quickly and need something to immediately fix it.”

Macfarlane suggests people “stop and breathe” before reaching for their phones.

“Reset in your body and ask yourself what could I do differently?

“Try something different and learn something new like crafting or crocheting, so you become more mindful of creating things.

“That way, we’re using our brain in a different way.”

Apart from cold-turkey detoxes, Waizenegger recommends “creating healthy digital patterns” in daily life.

This could include switching off notifications, unfollowing negative people or pages, unsubscribing from newsletters and deleting apps that are no longer needed, she said.

It was important to set boundaries around technology, such as not having phones at the dinner table and setting time limits for social media scrolling.

“These are things that are do-able and integrate the commitments we have in our daily lives,” Waizenegger said.

“We all have family and community commitments where we need technology.

“Be mindful of how you use it.”

HOW TO DIGITAL DETOX THIS SUMMER

Set a clear time frame and let friends and family know what you’re doing. Put your phone away at the dinner table or while out with friends and family. Mute notifications. Turn off the phone one hour before bed. Leave your phone at home when out for a walk. Putting your phone on airplane or do not disturb mode – or in another room. Visit a friend rather than texting or messaging.

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.