By Kelsey Simonson, Ed.D., Registrar and Director of Community Standards, Tufts University
According to the AACRAO 2024 U.S. Registrar Survey, 76% of respondents reported working 41 or more hours a week. 94% of respondents had at least one direct report. We have plenty of responsibilities, people to care for, and opportunities for stress in our day-to-day jobs without adding additional stress that can barrage us digitally. As higher education professionals, we are predisposed to want to help others in distress, whether it is our students, our direct reports, or any number of colleagues and acquaintances. However, our propensity to help others can lead to overextension and neglect of our own mental health.
If you’ve noticed your heart rate or anxiety increasing recently, you are certainly not alone. According to the American Psychiatric Association, in 2024, 43% of Americans reported feeling more anxious than they did the previous year. For many people, this anxiety could be digitally sourced—whether from social media, news apps, or reading web pages—available at the tap of a finger and constantly announcing its presence with a buzz or ping from a phone.
There are small ways to control digital stress and anxiety and cultivate a more calming and mentally healthy environment. These tips can help you set boundaries, prioritize yourself, and reframe your relationship with your digital devices and constant access to information.
Set Your Own Boundaries First
Setting boundaries is imperative in managing digital anxiety, whether that is a boundary between yourself and another person or between yourself and your phone.
Feel free to tell your colleagues, friends, or family that you don’t want every bit of “breaking news” forwarded to you. While solidarity can be found in discussing events with others, it can quickly become a collective anxiety spiral. Voicing a need for a community that does not center around group anxiety offers an opportunity for folks who may be less willing or able to voice the same boundary to create new options for community building.
Consider setting app time limits if you find yourself “doomscrolling.” Establishing downtime can also be beneficial for your mental health. Personally, I limit myself to a maximum of one hour of Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook per day. I set my phone to “go dark” between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., setting limits to a few select apps that I know will not increase my anxiety right before bed or first thing in the morning.
Reduce, Redirect, Replace
You may be familiar with the phrase “think globally, act locally.” Apply the same philosophy when consuming social media and other digital content. Humans have unprecedented access to information today. We are hyper-aware of every current event in our town, state, nation, and world. For those of us who empathize with the people in the stories we read about, it can quickly become overwhelmingly distressing to read constant stories of death, suffering, and general negativity. Realistically, there is very little we can do about global disasters and international conflict, but those feelings of distress and anxiety are no less real.
When the sheer amount of news becomes overwhelming, direct your energy and desire to help in ways that feel tangible or that you can control. Realistically, most of us cannot fly overseas to volunteer with NGOs or get world leaders together to end war. But we can:
Volunteer in our communities.
Donate to nonprofits, charities, or causes.
Write to our congresspeople about issues we care about.
Replacing doomscrolling with tangible contributions can make you feel more in control and empowered against a barrage of bad news.
Don’t Get Bogged Down by Micro-Grabs for Your Attention
How many times a day does your phone vibrate or otherwise alert you to a new notification? Push notifications sent to your phone may be causing you significant anxiety without even realizing it. According to a 2023 study, phone-checking frequency predicted greater depression, anxiety, and stress levels, and excessive use of smartphones was a predictor of anxiety levels. You may notice your heart jumps when your phone buzzes or a feeling of dread overcomes you as you wonder what breaking news is being pushed to your home screen.
For those of us who do experience a physical reaction to push notifications, that feeling often happens dozens of times per day. According to Business of Apps Research, the average smartphone user receives 46 push notifications to their phone every day. In researching this article, I looked at my own phone analytics. I receive an average of 81 push notifications per day. That is 81 opportunities for my cortisol to spike, my heart rate to increase, and for me to be pulled away from my present thoughts to worry about something else.
Review your phone’s analytics and take stock of the notifications you receive to manage the anxiety that comes from constant competition for your attention via push notifications.
Taking the time to turn off or limit the notifications you receive can go a long way toward improving your mental health. Our unrestricted access to information via the Internet provides plentiful opportunities for anxiety, worry, and stress. By taking stock of our digital habits and curating the information we consume more thoughtfully, we can improve our overall mental health and well-being.