I’ve found that going analog for this challenge has played a hugely important role in me kicking my mobile and social media addiction.

The act of finding offline alternatives to what I used to do in front of a screen has been both challenging and rewarding.

For example, I’ve text a few friends recently and had some great textervations back and forth.

Some could argue that text is the same as an instant message on Facebook but I think the big different is that text is a singular event.

Most text apps do just that - text. Nothing else is there to distract you so when you’re texting with someone, there’s a good chance that this two way exchange will have yours and the the other person's undivided attention.

When you message someone on Facebook, there’s so many other things that demand a person's attention away.

This means most people are conversing with you whilst checking their feed, looking at email, chatting with someone else or surfing the web... or perhaps all of these at once.

Imagine if we took this path in other areas of our lives, like eating a meal. We would have a nibble at dinner, then a plate of dessert, wash a dish then open some wine - what a f4cking nightmare!

It would be like sitting down at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

There’s so many areas of our lives that take focus, concentration and a linear approach. Why is it that as soon as we get online or on social media we feel a scattergun approach to communicate is ok?

Just imaging for a second if a dinner party ran like Social Media. We would have people stating random sentences about themselves and holding up pictures of their kids or what they did on the weekend, taking selfies then handing these out to all their friends. And don’t even get me started on the poking!

Turning to Social Media for real connections and sharing is like driving through the city randomly throwing food out your car window to help feed the homeless. How effective is the method?

When’s the last time you thought warmly about a conversation you had on Twitter? In fact, when’s the last time you actually had a real conversation on social media?

In this age of superfast broadband and instant gratification, it’s important to disconnect and find some pastimes that slow you down and puts you back into a real life time frame and a linear approach.

Build a fire, plant a tree, take a bath, write in a journal, help out at your kids school - do something away from the screen and only then will you start coming back to life... real life.