Day 1.5 in Nepal, Day 1 of Digital Detox

There is significant benefit in doing a digital detox, 
and I decided to do it again after my 2nd time in Phuket which lasted a week.
This time I made it 10 days.

My 1st digital detox was when I was in Cuba.
I thought it would be a great place to do it, 
because internet could only be used when physically on the streets anyway,
I might as well not have it.
I loved it.
It felt more like life again, 
The life we used to have pre-2010.
I've always been a camera person, even before smartphones,
I'd carry a camera everywhere.
I was the Asian person taking pictures all the time, 
my friend would roll her eyes and smile when I poked my camera at her face.
I just loved taking pictures.

Phone, however, is a different matter.
I hated waiting for txts, waiting to hear back, waiting and waiting, checking the phone to see if I received a message reply.
That wasn’t healthy.

Smartphones are worse. 
It's a micro-laptop on hand + a camera + a phone (which is a function I do not use).
But the information you can gather on a smartphone is just too much.
Looking at the phone becomes a filler of times when we could stare blankly at the ocean/the mountain/the street, thinking inward and giving our brain the time to wander and wonder at things.
So that's why I'm doing the digital detox again.

I do allow people to msg me, because that's how travelers and my family can stay in touch with me.
But I do not look at social media of any kind.
That was just the best choice ever.
I also had too many things happening day in day out that I had no time to look at the phone anyway.
So a week went past like nothing.

I didn't need the smart phone for anything but panning a shot with it like a camcorder, or taking videos and photos whenever I did not feel the need to use my camera-camera.
Doing the digital detox allows you to connect more with yourself,
and spend more time looking at the world rather than the worlds within the phone.

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I made time for writing my diary instead of looking at the phone, 
I made time to read when I had any time at all to do so.
In fact I feel like 10 days aren't even enough.
I can easily go for 2 weeks or more next time I'm traveling.
Especially if I have made a lot of friends. 
Time away from the phone is a good valuable time, worthy of living 100% present.
I highly recommend every one of my friends some of that digital detox.
It's so good.
I'm going to do it again for every trip I take.