Impacts of Science and Technology

As the Greek Stoic Philosopher, Epictetus once said, “If one oversteps the bounds of
moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to exist.”

The Digital Detox Day is a concrete example of acting upon a personal well-being
exercise instead of intending to participate. This digital detox is a great opportunity to slow
down, reflect on our daily routines and focus on the present time with the people around us. As
Yoda says, “Do or do not. There is no try.” At least once in our lives, we have said something we
intend to do but not actually proceed to doing it, such as “I will try to stay away from checking
my Facebook Feed for one whole day and not post about everything that comes into mind.”
Since social media has been gravely intertwined in our daily lives, as it has opened its gateways
as platforms for food and grocery deliveries, for communication with our loved ones, for online
shopping and for broadcasting daily global news, it is inevitably difficult not to avoid endless
scrolling on our phones during our free time. In fact, being on our phones and scrolling through
our social media applications have been so deeply incorporated in our daily routines, not only
have our minds and bodies instilled that “scrolling reflex” on our social media applications, but
for some, it has become painfully difficult to avoid scrolling, checking, updating and searching
using these social media platforms.

In the present, the Philippines has a population of around 107.3 million wherein 71% of
that population or 76.2 million Filipinos are social media users. Moreover, 72.5 million Filipinos
are Facebook users, 10.69 million Filipinos are Instagram users (9.6% of the entire population)
and 7.8 million Filipinos are Twitter users, as of December 2020. Filipino social media users
spend a total daily time of 10 hours and 2 minutes online, and around 4 hours and 12 minutes
scrolling on their social media platforms, beating Brazilian and Thai users who spend around 9
hours and 29 minutes and 9 hours and 11 minutes, respectively. This goes to say that the
Filipinos has taken up the place for being the world’s heaviest internet users. For it to be
though of as a disadvantage or unhealthy may be truly up to personal opinion as everyone has
different purposes for their online usage, such as for work from home arrangements, online
schooling, research work, e-commerce endeavors, entertainment purposes, for social media
interaction, or a combination of all or some of these, it is highly dependent on the impact these
virtual simulations of every day life has on the well-being of all users, especially at the present
pandemic time.

As Albert Einstein states, “I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best
for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.” I believe that it is important to exercise the
virtues of moderation and balance in our daily activities in life. Having a balanced life does not
only develops one’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, it also gives us an opportunity
to be truly present with ourselves and others, in our daily lives at home. Having the ability to
detach from our phones and gadgets for long periods of time may be a cumbersome tasks for a
majority, especially the youth, who instantaneously are glued to their phones, but if practiced
properly, is often times very rewarding. I, myself, have practiced digital detox for long periods
of time (usually 2-3 days in a week) during the 6 month break before school during this
pandemic along with a friend of mine in our household. I must say that it was quite a difficult
and somewhat heavy task for me in the beginning, since this was my only way of
communication with my family and loved ones. However, as I started to practice taking an hour
away from my gadgets, I’ve come to realize that majority of the time I spent online was merely
on endless scrolling and not on communication. I’ve come to realize that I was making excuses
and justifying reasons why I was always glued on my phone. Moreover, I’ve come to realize that
when I communicate with my loved ones, we always set out a specific schedule to call each
other or at least notify each other ahead of time when one wants to make a call. With this
realization in mind, I was determined to step away and only use my phone for necessary
reasons such as researching a recipe to cook, checking for school updates and checking the
latest pandemic news and updates. With the help of my friend, we were able to zone in to our
hobbies, reading physical copies of books, and cultivate new pastime activities such as listening
to different genres of music and discovering classical music composers. I also made it a point to
myself to only use YouTube for long periods of time since I wanted to hone my skills in yoga
which is my favorite pastime even if the yoga studios were physically closed. In the end, the
whole experience was not only gratifying but also enriching as well since I was able to not only
appreciate the time I was spending with my self and my loved ones, but also hone skills and
learn new things during the year long pandemic.