The human race’s technology has evolved at an astounding rate over the last few centuries. We went from believing that the Earth was the centre of the universe, to building solar system-spanning satellites that could take pictures in wavelengths that we can’t see with our naked eyes.
And it’s become an important part of our lives, especially as the adoption of smartphones has all but been completed around the globe.
While technology has no doubt improved our lives in several different ways, it can also be fairly stressful and leave people with a lot of anxiety. Here we will look at ways of using technology in a healthy way.
1. Social Media Usage
The premise behind modern social media platforms is arguably a good one, but in reality, social media can cause a person a lot of damage. There are many studies proving the negative effects of social media on a user’s mental and physical health, especially on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to either limit usage as much as possible, or to delete whichever social media accounts are causing any kind of stress or depression.
2. Limit The News
Today’s news is based on a psychological concept known as a negativity bias, which means that it’s much easier to grab the attention of people by publishing a negative news story. This is something that a lot of news agencies have been using for many years, and it’s why reading the news too often can lead to feelings of depression and anxiety.
It’s best to always aim for news sources that are reputable, and try to limit reading the news to around once a week at the most.
3. Avoid Pressure To Upgrade
Every year, manufacturers release their latest flagship devices, advertising them in every way they can, artificially creating pressure to try and get consumers to upgrade.
But anyone that knows anything about smartphones will know that although flagships do come with some improvements, overall the technology hasn’t changed much in the last 5 or 6 years. This means that it’s possible to hold on to a phone for that much longer, especially if it happens to be a model that supports a custom mobile operating system, such as the widely-trusted LineageOS.
A custom ROM can provide updates for many years after the original manufacturer has since moved on, so the player can continue to enjoy their favourite bingo Australia games.
4. Block Advertisements
Advertisements have become the primary source of revenue for many of the biggest corporations in the world, such as Google and Meta. But targeted ads can eventually start to have an impact on a person’s well-being, which is why it can help to block those ads as much as possible.
On a browser, it can be as simple as installing the popular uBlock Origin extensions, which is great for blocking out all ads. For mobile YouTube, alternatives like NewPipe are another great option. For those that are more technically minded, it’s possible to block ads at the DNS level, which does require some know-how and tinkering.