Digital Cleanse

You may already be savvy with this term. John Mayer made it famous at the beginning of this year, posting about it, ironically, online, and encouraging people to join in the "cleanse" with him.

For those of you who don't know what a "Digital Cleanse" is, allow me to explain.

Essentially it is, for a period of at least a week, not going on (reading or contributing to) social networking sites, nor using your mobile, however smart it is, for anything except calls (NO text messaging or email), no forums, and no entertainment or gossip sites. Email is only allowed if accessed via a desktop or laptop.

It's an interesting concept; on the one hand, fully recognising our obsession and reliance on all of the above, but viewing it perhaps more like an addiction, encouraging going cold turkey in order to escape the collective's wrath, and ideally question your need for all the convenience it can provide.

On immediate consideration, I, as i'm sure many of you did, thought that it would be an easy thing to do. Thinking further, and looking back retrospectively however, it's easily forgotten just how much time (and on a regular basis) is spent browsing, reading, sponging up useless information on your friends, acquaintances and enemies. Think how many texts you send. I'm guessing most of us write more words in text messages each week than we do actually putting pen to paper.

Maybe we just forget how much we rely on Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, and permanent access to email on our phones, because they have all become an intrinsic part of our lives...extensions of our personalities - we communicate as much information about ourselves via these digital media as we do face-to-face. I'm guessing most of us would find it extremely difficult in putting this exercise to practise.

This rather rapid adoption of social media into our daily lives is quite a significant cultural shift, and it beggars the question, what next? If 7 years ago we'd have laughed at the idea of being constantly connected, and informed of our contemporaries' movements, of being to reel off as much about a person from their Facebook page as they can tell you in person, then...what next?