If you haven't thought about it yourself, you've likely heard friends, family or work colleagues say they're in need of a "digital detox" - in other words, temporarily forgoing digital devices to help reduce stress.
Whether it’s disturbed sleep patterns caused by blue light emitting devices, over-exposure to airbrushed images on social media or simply feeling you can’t switch off, we’re all familiar with the effects of too much screen time. The past year, however, has highlighted major benefits of digital technology – including empowering more flexible living. Home-working At the start of 2020, just 6% of UK workers were home-based. Now, it’s the norm for many with the majority (88%) keen to continue home-working in some capacity post-pandemic. Homeworking can reduce work-related stress and boost efficiency – 70% of home-workers reported being just as, if not more, productive as when office-based. From cutting commuting time to tackling household chores during breaks – it brings flexibility to our hectic lives. Supercharging health & wellbeing When gyms were forced to close, digital tools kept us on track with our goals. Downloads of health and fitness apps grew worldwide by 46%, and 60% have enjoyed using them so much they plan on cancelling their gym memberships. The same can be said for apps developed to help users sleep better, meditate and relax. During the first lockdown downloads of “mindfulness” apps increased by 25% – with 750k downloads made in one week alone. The rise the Internet of Things and Smart Cities Intelligent appliances can help minimise waste, control heating and lighting, improve energy efficiency and save time and money so we can focus on what really matters to us. Investment in community digital infrastructure can also make towns and cities safer, greener and more efficient for the benefit of all citizens. Plenty of examples exist globally, from tackling parking problems in South Korea, to New York’s smart waste management trucks and improved transport efficiency in Iceland. Nevertheless, digital challenges remain. Nearly 200,000 UK households currently get download speeds lower than 10Mbps, making basic services like email frustrating. And, where poor connectivity is widespread, smart city initiatives remain a pipe dream. Just like we need more pipes and wires to carry water and electricity when more homes are built, increasing web traffic means we need more bandwidth. That’s why CityFibre’s investing in town/city-wide full fibre networks to future-proof UK communities. The majority of UK premises connect to the internet via networks built for telephones – copper networks designed to carry sound, not data. While full fibre networks use 100% fibre optic technology to carry data at lightning speed from the home to the point of connection.
