December 5, 2025
Three months have gone faster than I realised and I just read my initial reflection which I wrote on September 18. Yesterday, on December 5th, I gave a presentation, a 5 minute Blitz on a key theme that occurred through my experiences engaging in coursework, class discussion and in my challenges. The big overarching theme I presented on the topic of “Belonging in the Natural World”. In my initial reflection from three months ago, the theme was the same. I grew up questioning a lot about my positioning within the natural world and as the semester progressed, I started having more questions than the week before.
Reading the tone of my initial reflection and looking back, I was really excited to venture into this new journey back in September. The anticipation and the uncertainty made it really fun and I was also really ambitious especially regarding my capacity in building a healthier relationship with phones. In one word and in all honesty, I would say no if someone asked me if I have healed fully and built a better relationship with phones, but I have become more critical or at least questioning myself every time I pick up my phone and that is a progress for me. On the reading about motivations for digital detox on technological detachment (Vialle et al., 2013), one of the motivations was to “reduce incongruence between actual and the ideal self” (Vialle et al., p.7). I share similar motivation when it comes to reducing my device use, since I dont like the gap between my ideal version of self and the current self but three months was not enough for me to act on my motivation. I hope to continue striving for and bridging the gap between my ideal self and the actual self or I would like to find other motivations also.
Comparing the two, my relationship with nature and my relationship with phone/digital devices, I believe I was more successful in establishing a healthier relationship with nature and answering some questions I had in this regard. An insight I found really interesting throughout this course was how my relationship with the natural world is somewhat connected with my relationship with devices. So therefore, I do believe improving my relationship with nature and finding comfort in the real world allows me to detach slightly from devices and find alternate hobbies and thus, indirectly improve my attitude towards digital devices.
Leisure was one of the main topic which stood out and I have yet to fully comprehend and practice leisure to the extent Popova’s (2017) discusses leisure in her article. She quotes Pieper’s view on leisure and explains how one who sees leisure at the anticipation of refreshment will never experience the true meaning of leisure. This view on leisure was really surprising to me when I first learned about it and I still am. Therefore, as I leave this course, I am once again thinking if leisure can be defined in ways that are not forceful, advanced or restrictive and if that will allow us to feel what could be closest to be a human at the very least.
Citations:
Vialle, S. J., Machin, T., & Abel, S. (2023, August 31). Better Than Scrolling: Digital Detox in the Search for the Ideal Self. Psychology of Popular Media. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000496
Popova, M. (2017, March 4). Leisure, the Basis of Culture: an obscure German philosopher’s timely 1948 manifesto for reclaiming our human dignity in a culture of workaholism. The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/08/10/leisure-the-basis-of-culture-josef-pieper/