Power Down the Advice to Unplug

March 7 is the Global Day of Unplugging, when the chronically online and technologically inclined are encouraged to power down their devices and reconnect with the real world for 24 hours.

A symptom of the digital age from which almost no one is immune is hearing the now tired mental health tip from professors, employers, doctors and even friends — disconnect from technology when we notice it interfering with our mental health.

While limiting screen time and technology use has been proven to better one’s mental health, it’s time the very people who require us to keep devices glued to our hands stop preaching such advice.

Chronic technology use is a result of the realities of the digital age. Disconnection feels near impossible when employers expect timely responses at all hours of the day and worrisome family members require constant access to your location. 

Personally, I’d love nothing more than to shut my phone off, shove it in a drawer and forget about it until absolutely necessary. I long for the days before my time, when landlines and hand-written letters were the most common modes of communication.

Alas, I’m a product of my generation — people who graduated high school via Zoom and entered a workforce of hybrid and fully remote office structures.

How are we meant to unplug when digital connection has been woven into every aspect of our lives? When work, school and communication are all channeled through a screen?

Sure, we can power down our devices and commit to a life lived in reality, regardless of technological barriers — but in a scarce job market where your value as an employee equates to your dependability, a missed email or Microsoft Teams notification can have harsh consequences.

Not to mention how, in many professions, your presence on social platforms like LinkedIn — a site that employs many of the evils of social media under the guise of corporate lingo — can very well determine your employability.

I once took a class — aptly titled “Digital Communication & Society” — in which we were challenged to unplug from all technology for a week. No smart phones, no television, essentially no use of technology invented after 1950.

How exactly is a student meant to purge themself of digital technology while enrolled in an institution that asks them to do the very opposite?

The reality of being a student, an employee, a friend — essentially any active member of society in the modern world — comes with a near-unavoidable commitment to keeping a phone or laptop close at all times.

Simply put, there can’t be true, consequence-free disconnection from technology without a larger cultural shift regarding our dependence on it for communication. With artificial intelligence on the rise, an increase in remote work and a nation-wide meltdown over an hours-long social media app shutdown, this doesn’t seem likely to come anytime soon.

Digital communication has certainly advanced certain aspects of our day-to-day lives, and it’s provided tools which make communication — in healthcare and education, for example — more accessible to those who didn’t previously have advanced technology. But at what point do we draw the line in terms of the average individual’s dependence?

Until we modify our means of communication and lessen our reliance on technology, receiving advice to unplug and disconnect is a pointlessly cruel suggestion to counteract the digital dependance it attempts to solve.