The Health Craze of 2010 – The Digital Cleanse

Have you noticed that Twitter has been a little slow the last few days? There is something more than just the holiday that is making your Twitter stream move slowly. You’ve read about it on Mashable, on TechCrunch and on blogs all over the internet. It’s the new fad, called doing a “digital cleanse.”

John Mayer introduced the idea on his blog December 30th, and in four days, it has become the new health craze – healthy for your mind and spirit. Even @Jason_Pollock is currently on a digital cleanse.

The concept is that you basically unplug. There are some exceptions which he listed on his blog post here – http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/post What’s the thought process behind it? In a nutshell, we are all so attached to our email, IM, social media, etc… that we no longer make telephone calls or interact with people the way we used to.

We are always in a frenzied mental state, taking in bits of information from all over the place and responding constantly. According to John Mayer, this is a mentally scattered and unfocused existence. People everywhere are joining him in this cleanse. Some people are doing it for a day or two, some for a week.

I have a different perspective on the whole thing. I just have one question, why would I ever want to give up Twitter for a week? That would not be an enlightened experience for me, instead, that would be torture. Why do people still go on and on about how unhealthy it is to be a social media addict? I mean, really, aren’t there worse things to be addicted to? My best friends are on Twitter, why would I want to alienate myself… just to prove I’m still capable of making a phone call?

I know we all need a break every now and then from our computers, but can’t we do that without completely giving up the things we love? Isn’t that a little bit extreme? Besides, isn’t that what a vacation is for? Maybe I’m missing something and you can educate me, but really, I don’t get it. I’m not criticizing anyone that thinks they need this, I’m not one to judge anyone for their decisions, I’m just saying for me personally, it’s not happening.

According to John Mayer’s blog, he has invited everyone that participated to come back after the cleanse and share their experiences. I’m excited to see what people say about their experience with this.

Thank you to http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgilles/3044872397 for the great picture above!