The Digital Diet

In this episode, I talk about: The Upwork Research Institute’s global study revealing the impact of AI on workloads and productivity The disconnect between managerial expectations and employee realities How increased pressure is leading to employee overwhelm, burnout and quitting jobs Why organisations are using freelancers to bridge the full-time employee skills gap and meet productivity targets...

In this episode, I talk about: The evolution of email from a rapid communication tool to a source of daily anxiety and stress Why managing multiple email accounts leads to email overload The fallacy of never-ending storage and how you end up keeping emails you don’t want or need The impact of email on marketing and the rise in unwanted emails, spam emails and data breaches How bad email etiquette...

In this episode, I talk about: Why smartphones stress you out, from constant notifications to the expectation that you’re always-on and always available, and how this impacts your mental health The challenge of maintaining data privacy when using smartphones to store or manage personal, health, and financial data How social interaction has decreased and loneliness has increased as smartphone owner...

In this episode, I talk about: Guidance issued by the UK Department for Education encouraging schools to ban mobile phones during the school day The rise of smartphone ownership among children and its effects on screen time, ability to focus, mental and physical wellbeing, academic performance, social interaction, online safety and data privacy The potential impact of a school mobile phone ban on...

In this episode, I talk about: New research revealing a link between social media use, nightmares, and poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression The Social Media Nightmare-Related Scale and how the intensity of your social media use predicts the frequency of social media-related nightmares Theories about why we have dreams and nightmares, including the Continuity Hypothesis of Dre...

In this episode, I talk about: How digital devices are impacting your sleeping habits and could be depriving you of a proper night’s sleep The science of sleep and how you cycle between two phases – REM sleep and non-REM sleep – in 90-minute sleep cycles throughout the night Why the duration of your sleep matters just as much as the quality of your sleep The importance of sleep for mental health,...

In this episode, I talk about: Why so many women are not taking their full annual leave entitlement each year Why women find themselves still working while on vacation The importance of taking regular holidays for your mental and physical health Barriers to taking regular time off, from low annual leave entitlement to busy work schedules and workplace cultures that expect you to be “always on” How...

In this episode, I talk about: Why balancing working and parenting is extra hard for mums during the summer holidays “Mum guilt” and the conflict between caring for your kids and performing well at work The importance of communication and transparency when juggling working from home with childcare How to create a structured schedule that keeps kids stimulated and entertained so that you can focus...

In this episode, I talk about: Why you can’t always rely on GPS to send you the right way The hilarious story of Noel Santillan, aka The Lost Tourist, and how GPS led him astray during a bucket list trip to Iceland How using GPS technology frequently could be shrinking your brain Place cells, grid cells, and the science behind your “inner GPS” or how you navigate without GPS devices How to protect...

In this episode, I talk about: The phenomenon of AI hallucinations – false or misleading information that is presented as fact How and why AI hallucinations occur with platforms such as ChatGPT 6 hilarious and scary examples of ChatGPT hallucinations, including: Lying about how many people survived the sinking of the Titanic Fabricating scientific references to support the idea that cheese is bad...

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 (...

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: Understanding your personal “why” for quitting Defining what quitting means for you Deciding which social media platforms to quit Setting a realistic quit...

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 sp...

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 un...

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...

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...

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 inadverte...

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 har...

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 tempor...

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...

In this episode, I talk about: The methods social media platforms use to capture as much of your time and attention as possible Behavioural psychology and how we learn behaviours through classical conditioning because of interactions with our external environment How social media companies exploit behaviourism by using persuasive design features in their platforms to deliberately influence and cha...

In this episode, I talk about: The birth of social media and how social media platforms are exponentially evolving Why social media platforms are a popular startup idea, despite huge competition The reason social media platforms are all launching similar features The attention economy aka the economy of distraction aka surveillance capitalism aka how social media platforms make their money The val...

In this episode, I talk about: The role of social media in the rise and fall of KSI, a popular British YouTuber, rapper, boxer, and entrepreneur How influencers, brands, and media outlets make money through content creation as part of the attention economy Why clickbait headlines and controversial posts drive high views and engagement on social media How social media algorithms change our behaviou...

In this episode, I talk about: Maximising opportunities to take a break from technology when you have time off work How remote working has increased your screen time and may be affecting your physical health more than you realise Our tendencies to ignore physical aches, pains, and strains until they become severe and to treat physical symptoms instead of preventing the root cause of our discomfort...

In this episode, I talk about: The difference 1 hour can make when it comes to practising digital wellbeing Why digital detox “escapes” may not be the solution to your digital device obsession The remarkable Indian village of Vadgaon, where a daily digital detox law has been introduced and enforced since August 2022 Whether Western countries could or should introduce their own daily digital detox...