We know that being connected is a nonnegotiable for your health and longevity. And that on the flip side, prolonged social isolation and loneliness are as hazardous for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
But what if you genuinely get drained from your social interactions and sometimes take a few days to recover? Surely, that can’t be that good for your health?
If this is you, it’s time for a social interactions audit and a new game plan going forward.
Why you’re getting drained from your social interactions:
1.
You are socially connected 24/7.
And what I mean here by “socially connected” runs the gamut from social media comments with complete strangers to answering your colleagues and clients to face-to-face interactions.
Now this is not to say that you need to get completely religious about turning off your phone at 6 p.m.—it’s unrealistic for most of us, especially when it comes to certain work situations or if you have a family member who might reach out anytime due to illness.
What it means is when you open the portal 24/7 to everyone—from notifications to calls to emails—and your phone is vibrating while you have just drifted off to sleep, then you won’t be well rested at all and therefore receptive to quality interactions.
Some things you can do include turning off all the unnecessary notifications because you don’t really need to see who is liking your posts in real time, and the energy cost of switching your attention all the time trumps whatever dopamine boost you get from receiving another like. Otherwise, you can set up different modes on your devices such as “sleep” and “do not disturb” modes, as well as autoresponders that you only attend to emails in a certain time window. And if you have to make sure that certain loved ones have to access you, there are exceptions you can set on your devices.