Building Brands: A digital detox is good for you and your brand

One of the many benefits our readers get by engaging with our locally-owned community newspapers is a look inside their local schools. It’s always great to see the various special events, clubs, sports teams, assemblies and learning projects area students participate in throughout the year. It’s especially fun when my nephew or niece (who was just elected to student council!) or my best friend, who teaches first grade, show up in the pages of one of our newspapers.

Emily Caswell

Last week one of our education stories stopped me in my tracks. From our coverage in the Lake Orion Review, “Lake Orion High School (LOHS) students volunteered to give up their cell phones and laptops for a full day Friday to participate in the school’s 10th annual Cell Out for Soldiers event. The charity event started with a group of senior boys who wanted to ask students to give up their phones during lunch, according to LOHS Leadership Advisor Lori Hogan. In the years since, it has raised around $24,000 for the nonprofit Cell Phones for Soldiers, which provides cost-free communication services and emergency funding to active-duty military members and veterans, according to its website … Students sealed their phones in bubble-wrapped envelopes, and stored them in their backpacks – this way phones are accessible if absolutely necessary. Doing so makes for a unique and fun day for students of the digital age …”
Students reported that the classrooms, hallways and the cafeteria are much louder during the Cell Out, and hands-on fun, like a giant connect four game, take place during lunch.
The photos from the day made it clear that it’s a fun and high-energy day at the school. This part of our coverage really stood out to me.
“The occasion also provides an extra learning experience for students because face-to-face conversation can cause stress and anxiety for some students, according to Hogan. ‘So they’re really kind of forced outside of their comfort zone, in a good way for a good reason, to talk to other kids,’ Hogan said, adding it is an important adulting skill for students to speak with people they normally would not.”
Reading this I realized it’s not just students who could use a lesson in face-to-face communication or benefit from a digital detox, we all can.
A forbes.com article on the topic gives many reasons business leaders should engage in a digital detox, sharing the not-so-shocking statistic from an Asurion survey that “individuals checked their phones an average of 96 times per day, equating to once every 10 minutes.”
This constant connection to our phones and technology isn’t great. One issue it causes according to that same article is attention residue, which is the cognitive cost accumulated when shifting from one task to another. From the article, “Even brief micro interruptions can affect our productivity, with a Deloitte study indicating it takes 15 to 23 minutes to regain total concentration.”
Another more serious issue is the toll constant phone checking, for example, takes on one’s mental health. From the forbes.com article, “A Stress in America report by the American Psychological Association reveals that 1 in 5 Americans cite technology as a significant source of stress, with levels escalating as technology use increases.”
Of course, social media is part of issue. The article cites research from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health that “indicates that unplugging from social media for as little as one week can enhance mental well-being and foster greater social connectedness.”
Finally, the forbes.com article hit on what the students at Lake Orion High School discovered during their Cell Out — human connection is important. Face-to-face social interaction is a skill we all need to practice in order to master, and it’s nearly impossible to do so with a phone stuck to our face.
The students in Lake Orion have inspired me. In the days and weeks ahead I’m going to challenge myself to set parameters for my phone use. I’ve put a book next to my bed to avoid nighttime scrolling, and I plan to leave my phone at my desk or in my car during meetings.
If a digital detox is good for you, imagine what it can do for your brand. I’ve written before about the importance of taking your brand’s marketing offline. A Digiday article noted that many marketers are turning to traditional advertising methods like newspapers to stand apart. From the article, “the ever-growing digital ad market is getting increasingly cluttered, making it more difficult for marketers to stand out.” You know what really stands out? A newspaper ad.
A digital detox allows you time to recharge and focus on strategic brand building. As an added bonus, you’ll also have more time to read the newspaper.
Want to learn more about a digital detox for your brand? Email me ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.
Emily Caswell is the Brand Manager for VIEW Group, the branding division of View Newspaper Group.

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