The Digital Diet

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why AI voice assistants are almost always female and how this perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes
• The reason tech companies struggle to create accurate male AI voice assistants and the future of AI voice technology
• 5 hilarious times that Amazon’s AI assistant, Alexa, has misbehaved, including:
  • Recommending a dangerous challenge to a child
  • Buying a $160 dollhouse (and cookies!)
  • Allowing a parrot to make a purchase
  • Misunderstanding a command and playing explicit content
  • Throwing a late night party while its owner was out
• What you can learn from these cautionary tales and how to safeguard yourself against your own Alexa assistant going rogue
• The Alexa settings check-up challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/024

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• The rising trend of quitting social media
• The most common reasons for deciding to quit social media
• Why giving up social media is so hard
• The 7-step game plan to help you successfully quit social media, including:
  1. Understanding your personal “why” for quitting
  2. Defining what quitting means for you
  3. Deciding which social media platforms to quit
  4. Setting a realistic quit date
  5. Preparing yourself and your connections for your departure
  6. Removing social media from your life on quit day
  7. Living your best life without social media

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/023

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why everyone should consider doing a social media detox
• The benefits of taking a break from social media for your mental and emotional wellbeing
• How long a social media detox should be and how often you should take breaks from social platforms
• 5 action steps to successfully take a break from social media, including
  • Choosing between a break from all social media or specific social media platforms/apps
  • Deciding how long your social media detox will last
  • Preparing yourself and your connections for your absence in advance
  • Deleting social media apps and disabling notifications
  • Finding alternative activities to occupy your time

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/021

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why everyone should actively curate their social media experience
• 6 practical tips to curating your social media experience, including
  • Being authentic in posted content
  • Switching off validation mechanisms
  • Consciously reacting to other people’s content
  • ‘Marie Kondo-ing’ your connections and subscriptions
  • Enabling personalised ads or paying to avoid them
  • Turning off unnecessary notifications
• 5 action steps to reduce the amount of time you spend on social media, including:
  • Understanding your current social media use
  • Setting realistic targets for social media screen time
  • Establishing rules and boundaries for social media use
  • Using physical and digital blocking tools
  • Logging out of social media apps between sessions

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/021

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why choosing to quit or  take a break from using social media is such a significant decision
• How your personal social media habits and online experience influence your decision
• The importance of time alone and away from social media
• How to tell when you need to take a break from social media
• The biological stress response to social media overexposure
• How to decide if you should quit, cut down, curate or take a break from social media
• The downloadable decision chart and important questions to ask yourself when deciding how you will use social media

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/020

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• How social media is making you more connected but less sociable by replacing your real life relationships with lower quality connections
• Your innate biological desire for social connection and why loneliness feels so uncomfortable
• The surprising impact of loneliness on your mental and physical health, and why we’re in the middle of a loneliness epidemic
• The important difference between loneliness and choosing to be alone
• Dunbar’s number and how many people your brain has the capacity to maintain stable social relationships with at any one time
• How relationships shift over time and significant life changes as you get older can create distance between you and your friends
• Why social media makes you feel closer to people than you actually are, and how this affects your perception of the number and quality of your relationships
• The difference between acquaintances and real friends – and how to spot the difference
• How to tell if you’re lonely and practical steps for tackling loneliness with, and without, using technology
• The conversation connection challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/019

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• The dramatic difference between how you behave online and how you behave offline
• How social exchange theory might explain why you are more extroverted online than you are in real life, and how innate reward and survival mechanisms cause you to overshare information about yourself on social media
• Why the way you use social media is feeding the algorithms and inadvertently creating the negative experiences you have online
• How social media is encouraging you to compete, instead of connect, with other people by prioritising features that promote ranking behaviours above linking behaviours
• The creation of echo chambers on social media that reinforce your existing world view and make you less tolerant of other people’s perspectives and opinions
• Why proper conversations are important for self-reflection and the development of empathy but declining thanks to social media eroding our willingness to socialise and driving us to stick to lighter topics in real life discussions
• How presenting a highly-curated version of yourself online and not allowing yourself to be vulnerable has made you less forgiving of other people’s mistakes and flaws
• The reason why negativity and negative emotions spread so quickly across social networks, even when there is no direct contact between users
• How social media offers you anonymity, invisibility, and asynchronicity that leads to a minimisation of authority online and a belief that there are no real life consequences for your online actions
• The reason social media algorithms amplify the worst human traits to grab your attention
• How to be kinder on social media and present the most authentic version of yourself
• The 7 day conscious, conversational, and constructive social media challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/018

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why research into the link between social media and mental health is flawed, and the reason that experts can’t agree whether social media is good or bad for you
• The dangers of skim reading misleading news headlines about the impact of social media on mental health
• Whether social media companies and national governments have a responsibility to protect us from the harmful effects of social media on our mental health
• The important difference between causation and correlation, when it comes to discussing mental health issues
• Why it’s difficult to measure the impact social media has on our mental health, and what data social media companies already have about the way their platforms negatively affect users
• The highly individualised nature of your experience on social media, and why you must take responsibility for curating a more positive experience for yourself
• What we know about the links between social media and changes in mood, depression, anxiety, suicide and self-harm, body image, and loneliness
• The reasons why social media might be making you feel depressed, anxious, self-conscious, or lonely, and what to do if you’re concerned about yourself or someone you know
• The definition of social media addiction and why it’s more than simply spending too much time online
• How social media provides a space for online communities and text-based support that can benefit your mental health
• My personal struggles with depression and anxiety, and how social media has both helped and hurt me
• The 7 day social media and mental health journalling challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/017

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why the answer to the question “how much time should I spend on social media?” is not a straightforward one
• Uncovering whether it’s yourself or others in your life who think that you are spending too much time online and what this means for your relationships
• Understanding the reasons you use social media and the distinctions between work and personal use, and temporary vs. permanent increases in screen time
• The importance of knowing how your social media use affects your mental and emotional health
• Deciding for yourself how much time you are comfortable spending on social media
• What the research says and expert recommendations for daily social media use
• The 7 day social media time audit challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/016

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds

In this episode, I talk about:

• The reason you’re still going on social media, despite turning off all notifications, taking a digital detox break, or deleting your accounts
• The four happiness hormones – dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins – and how they work together to ensure the survival of the human race
• How social media mimics your real life experiences, affecting your natural levels and sources of these neurohormones
• The surprising connection between survival behaviours and pleasurable feelings, and why your brain has created internal triggers for going on social media
• The 7 day internal triggers challenge

View show notes including links to all the resources and tools mentioned: https://thedigitaldietcoach.com/015

Get your free #TechTimeout Challenge 30 Day Digital Detox Guide

Keep in touch with me:

• Visit my website at thedigitaldietcoach.com
• Join the digital wellness community at The Digital Diet Lounge
• Subscribe to my newsletter, Unplugged
• Email me at [email protected]
• Connect with me on Instagram @thedigitaldietcoach or LinkedIn

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Music by FASSounds