Digital Fasting

 “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”
    — Brillat-Savarin

Updated for 2025: “Tell me what you scroll, and I’ll tell you who you pretend to be.”

🧠 Move over Coke, Macburger, Mango and Ice-cream…
If the world had a Miss Universe for Junk Diets, digital data would walk the ramp in a glittering gown made of Instagram reels, political hot takes, and Netflix thumbnails.
Forget calories. What we consume today isn’t deep-fried—it’s deep-faked. Not high sugar, but high dopamine. Not cholesterol-inducing, but soul-numbing. And guess what? You don’t even need to chew.

You scroll.

🍔 Welcome to the Digital Buffet 
In the last 30 years, the world’s most powerful empire hasn’t been America, China or Elon Musk.
It’s the Empire of the Algorithm, with its capital city in your pocket.

We’ve binged on...
- Facebook feuds for breakfast
- WhatsApp wisdom for lunch
- TikTok dances before dinner
- And Netflix 'Netflix and no chill' till 3 a.m.
No wonder we’re mentally bloated and emotionally constipated.

📉 The Side Effects of This All-You-Can-Swipe Lifestyle
1. Attention Span = A Goldfish on Red Bull
2. Anxiety spikes every time the blue ticks are ignored.
3. Phantom Vibrations: That moment your thigh buzzes but your phone’s on the table.
4. Comparisonitis: A life-threatening condition caused by scrolling someone else's highlights while living your behind-the-scenes.
As per latest studies (and common sense), digital overconsumption has:
- Increased loneliness
- Messed with sleep
- Reduced productivity
- And turned “doomscrolling” into an Olympic sport.

💉 Digital Imperialism – The Subtle Colonisation
Digital Imperialism isn’t Britishers with hats—it’s Big Tech with hats made of code.
They colonised our time, mined our data, and taxed our sanity.
All while giving us emoji reactions and a thousand cat videos.
We don’t own our attention anymore. We rent it out, 15 seconds at a time.

🧘🏽‍♂️ Enter: Digital Fasting – The Diet of the Mindful
If your phone was food, would you eat 7 hours of it daily without puking?
Exactly.
So let’s detox.

🧂 Digital Fasting Tips
1. Start with Intermittent Fasting
No-screen mornings: Wake up to sunlight, not blue light.
Post-lunch blackout: Let your brain digest food, not drama.
2. Use 'Dumbphones' or 'No-phone Sundays'
Remember landlines? They didn’t judge you by your selfies.
3. App Elimination Diet
Uninstall one app a week. Begin with the one that makes you feel inadequate and ends with “gram”.
4. Replace, Don’t Remove
Replace 30 mins of reels with a real book, real conversation, or real boredom (which is actually fertile ground for creativity).
5. Digital Sabbath
One full day. No screens. You might meet a rare species—yourself.
6. Notifications Off = Sanity On
Stop being Pavlov’s Dog. Just because your phone pings doesn’t mean you need to drool.

🎤 Wise Words from the Wise (and the Wi-Fi’d):

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”
                              — Anne Lamott


 “You are not a product. So stop behaving like one on LinkedIn.”
         
 “Freedom is not doing what you want. It’s not needing to check your phone every 12 seconds.”
       — Your Inner Monk (who has a dead battery)

🎯 Final Scroll
Young warriors of the Wi-Fi age—
You were born to create, not just consume.
To connect deeply, not just wirelessly.
To live out loud, not just post about it.
So fast a little.
Starve the screen.
Feed the soul.
Who knows?
You might just remember how delicious real life tastes.



Comments

  1. Vijay Singh10 June 2025 at 17:38

    Absolutely agree with you Ashu. How I miss those lazy afternoons with nothing to do but day dream. No calls, no messages but total faith in the paradigm that “no news is good news.” A very well written and apt message to the world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ajay Mahajan10 June 2025 at 18:00

    Very well said. Unfortunately, business also happens on WhatsAp. Not easy to only look at business messages and not look at social posts from people who keep posting non stop whole day. But, one must limit looking at the non work related messages whole day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amit Goyal10 June 2025 at 20:07

    Love your writing style Ashoo ! Yes, especially social media app's need to be removed from the phone….

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10 June 2025 at 21:45

      Hmm, tough one. But, the best option

      Delete
  4. Tipsy Wadhawa10 June 2025 at 21:34

    Wonderful articulation of a very germane issue. You are truly marvellous with words. Keep it up.by the way I could use some content for my digital detox episode👌

    ReplyDelete
  5. Radhika Dabral11 June 2025 at 06:50

    Agree 💯 with you 👍

    ReplyDelete

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