As someone who was around before smartphones and social media, I remember this simpler time fondly, when we would communicate face-to-face, weren’t contactable 24/7 and did not feel the need to let the world know what we ate for breakfast. Not every second needed to be filled by external distractions; we were present, we were free. Fast-forward around 25 years, and I, like many others, had become a phone-addicted zombie, trading much of my spare time for cheap dopamine.

My phone addiction wasn’t something I gave much thought to until I got a new job in 2023. The 25-minute commute on public transport was what first made me realise I had a problem. In those first few weeks of the new job, I couldn’t go more than a few seconds without looking at my phone during my journey.

When I did manage to observe the other passengers on my train carriage, they, too, would be engrossed in their phones. As I became more conscious of both my own reliance on this device and seemingly everyone else’s, I started to question how we got to this point. I began to think, not only about smartphones but also about how tech, in general, has pretty much just taken over our lives.

Looking back, if there’s one thing that prompted me to start this blog, it was guilt. Guilt over not being present with friends and family, as I deemed what was happening on my phone more important. Guilt over the wasted evenings and weekends as I constantly scrolled through social media. And Guilt over the potential missed connections and opportunities from the times I spent glued to my phone in public.

A newfound digital mindfulness would result in my habits slowly changing over time as I began to break the cycle of constant online stimulation. I started to write about my own experiences and express my views on where we’re heading with all this, and hence, Digital Downsize was born.