Are you an internet and social media addict? A digital detox may be for you
The digital detox: a cure for tech addiction and ‘smart boredom’ or a marketing gimmick? PLUS five places in Asia and elsewhere to unplug and unwind
The world is full of phoneys. In many cities on the planet people have their faces buried in their smartphones. Crowds of commuters marching to work stop erratically to check their devices, couples sit in restaurants checking WhatsApp, and the MTR is a sea of LCD screens.
Hong Kong is no exception. Statistically, we rank among the worst for the proportion of social media and internet addicts. Smartphone usage and social media penetration in the city is among the highest in the world, with a whopping 99 per cent of internet users between the ages of 25 and 44 accessing the internet every day, according to Statista. It tails off as you go up the age groups, but not by much; 92 per cent of over-55s use the internet every day.
“If you look at the proportion of people that use social media in Asia, it’s very high among all age groups,” says Peter Andrews, of Hull University Business School in the UK.
That may also explain why digital detox holidays are more popular than ever in East Asia.
“People are becoming wedded to technology, and that’s why digital detoxes are starting to pop up because people recognise that they need a break from their devices and from social media,” says the lecturer in marketing, who teaches students at the University of Hong Kong extension HKU SPACE.