Feeling overwhelmed because of your dependence to all things digital is, undoubtedly, the curse of the modern era. And we’re all guilty of it. I don’t know about you, but when I look at my personal dependency it’s particularly scary.

The first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and start scrolling through emails, twitter, facebook, instagram… I then get up, go to my office, turn on my computer and work on it for at least eight hours straight. At around 6pm I log off, head downstairs, watch TV, fire up my laptop and browse pinterest, youtube, buzzfeed. I always keep my phone very close by.

I am constantly connected, constantly contactable, constantly on stand-by.

It’s not that I think I’m going to miss something oh so very important if I switch off… it’s that I actually can not switch off. Without some kind of digital stimulation I’m quickly bored, fidgety and grumpy. I am unable to just… be. I need things to continually occupy my mind, and most of the time that thing is the internet.

The internet is a fantastic tool and without social media, blogs, forums… whatever… many of us (myself very much included) would not be doing the jobs that we are. We owe the internet a lot, but we don’t owe it our sanity.

We don’t owe it every single hour of our day.

We don’t owe it our down time, our family time or our time off.

So let’s start to treat the internet in the way that we were supposed to: As something to help, aid and progress our endeavours. As a platform to showcase our talents and to connect with other people. As entertainment when we need it, and to break up the everyday monotony when we want it.

The internet should add value to your life and career, not be the centre of your universe.

Take at look at your own digital existence. Does it mirror mine? If so, log off and go out and do something else for a change.