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The digital detox: Could you manage without your mobile phone?

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Fine, my hands are up. I spend way too much time on my phone.

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Whether it's aimlessly trawling through Twitter, texting my other half or WhatsApping pals pictures of my face, it's time for me to 'fess up.

But I'm not the only one who's finally come to terms with the side effects of a hectic, technology-filled lifestyle.

Hoards of young professionals across the country are paying decent money for tech-free retreats in the Welsh valleys, where organisers hold on to your device for a weekend and subject you to hours of yoga, life drawing and group activities. This all comes in for a tidy little fee of £200.

Sound ridiculous? What's more ridiculous is the fact that adults, on average, are now checking their phone up to 150 times a day. That's once every six minutes.

Whether that be for e-mails, texts, 'notifications' on Facebook and Twitter or absolutely nothing, we, statistically, can't help but make sure we're up to date with as much as possible.

  • Could you manage without your mobile phone? Vote now in our poll at the bottom of the article.

So, I ditched my beloved device for 48 hours to see how I'd cope with being out of the online loop. Would I emerge a stress-free, happier person?

When I jovially accepted the challenge, it soon became apparent how much I rely on my phone. It's my alarm clock, my bank, my diary, my notebook, my camera – I even take it out with me when I run. Leaving the house without it sets me in to a panic.

Our phones give us the chance to have a tab on everyone and everything at any one time. We like to know what's going on – it's human nature.

FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out – is a phrase well-used by psychologists today as we rely more and more on social media. But this mobile technology is giving us the option to drown in a sea of constant updates.

It's lunchtime on day one, and after making sure I'm equipped with a watch – having no phone makes you realise that's usually how you check the time – I head in to town for a coffee.

No quick calls or texts to anyone, just time to myself. As I smugly unwind by tucking in to my book – a real tangible book made with actual paper, may I add – I see 20-something-year-old girls at a table tapping away on their phones in silence. ON. THEIR. PHONES. I'd put money on them sharing their meeting on Facebook.

Why? To show to the online world that they're treating themselves to a real-life catch-up, no doubt. Doesn't this defeat the point? Anti-social media hindering any lengthy conversation.

And these are the things that pop up on our 'newsfeeds'.

How did that happen? All we're doing is making sure we know what others are up to. It forms part of our insatiable human desire to know absolutely everything. But now, it seems, it's gone too far the other way.

After my solo lunch date, I feel much more relaxed and ready to tackle the afternoon. I can honestly understand how these digital detoxes are becoming so popular.

Self control, of course, would be option number one. It's like any bad habit – you nip it in the bud before you get to that point. I can happily say I didn't struggle at all without the technology.

But we're always tuned in to something. We're even replying to our work emails in our own time. News of France's post-6pm email ban took the western world by storm recently. Genius. But is that the key to modern-life bliss? Our attention spans are becoming shorter, dismissing things we see online as quickly as we see them, ready to move on to another update. It's laughable.

Don't get me wrong, it's amazing how easy it is to keep in touch with distant relatives, and pals across the other side of the world.

But rather than check for updates weekly, we're checking daily. Just because it's possible to get live updates on absolutely everything doesn't mean we have to.

If my Instagram account was a true reflection of my life, anyone would think I'm Shropshire's biggest socialite.

Realistically, I'm probably at home watching Storage Hunters in my pyjamas with a cup of nettle tea. Party on! At the end of my 48-hour ban, I'm still trying to understand how people have to pay others to take their technology away from them.

It's like a punishment for a naughty child. So ponder this: Do you really need to type out your annoyance on to Twitter? Probably not. In a year's time, you'll forget what it was ever about. You won't be looking back at online posts with a sense of nostalgia.

You'll be looking back at the times you had technology free, simply enjoying life.

Too much of anything can be harmful – including our phones. Two days without it was just enough to realise that I'm wasting so much of my time for absolutely no gain at all.

Weekend in Wales, anyone?

What do you think? Could you manage without your mobile? Vote now in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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