There comes a turning point in anything where what we once thought was unabashedly good or bad has to be viewed in subtler shades: Technology, it seems, is the latest to face this bind. We have become entirely dependent on tech, both overtly and covertly, to live any semblance of a normal life. Technology can no longer be seen as the enemy of society, but it also can’t be seen as an absolute boon. Now, after a year of maximising our screen time and reconsidering what it means to live via video call, we need to look at a more nuanced view: we need to consider our digital health.
While previously the way we talked about technology was about either using it or detoxing from it, having it on or having it off, such absolutes are not always possible (and, in many ways, never were). Just as physical health and mental health have entered mainstream conversation – and we have come to understand there is no panacea for all people all the time – the way we talk about our digital hygiene is in need of changing. Or so, at least, Zoë Aston thinks.
A psychotherapist and mental health consultant who has worked with some of the world’s top companies and gyms as a mental health expert, Aston is now working with Microsoft Windows to come up with new ways for a tech company to make sure it promotes healthy use of its product. While we’ve previously spoken to experts about how to have a healthy relationship between social media and mental health, Aston wants us all to reconsider the good and bad things about our relationships with technology at large after the year that was and what we start doing going forward. Below are some of the steps she suggests taking to make sure you, your tech and the people contacting you via your tech all find a healthy balance.
This story is from the July - August 2021 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July - August 2021 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
How to Dress for a Concert in Your Thirties
GQ World Humour
MARNI'S FRANCESCO Risso WILL NEVER GROW UP
The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laser-like focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.
MEET THE WILDEST CHARACTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Goa's buzziest restaurants Praça Prazeres and Larder + Folk traverse the European continent for inspiration.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS CHANGING LANES
The seven-time F1 champ says he still has a world title in him-maybe this year, his final one at Mercedes; maybe next year when he joins Ferrari, a shocking move he tells us he manifested. But it's his passionate work outside of racing-in fashion, in film, in music-that's setting him up to keep making moves after the chequered flag drops on his racing career.
Summer of Sobhita
From Vizag to LA, Sobhita Dhulipala is having a golden run.
THE GQ35 MOST INFLUENTIAL YOUNG INDIANS
It's been 10 heady years since this list was first launched. And this year's edition celebrates India's youth power like never before. These individuals are leaders of powerful tribes, and personalities bearing influence over millions across the globe. They are pioneering business models, defining culture, and disrupting the status quo. They are driving innovation, pushing boundaries, and effecting change. Welcome to the future, today.
The Life-Changing Magic of Asking Kind Strangers to Rate Your Looks Online
On Reddit, a community dedicated to advice on one's appearance has given some men some unexpected confidence-and its moderators are trying to maintain one of the internet's few troll-free places.
Syncretic Jewels
An exhibition by Cartier at the Louvre, Abu Dhabi, highlighted the influence of Islamic art and Indian gems on the French maison's haute joaillerie over the years through more than 400 works from the museum's collection as well as those of partner museums, the Cartier archives, and private collectors.
