‘There’s a 99 per cent chance you’re reading this on a screen – 85 per cent of you on a mobile, 15 per cent on a tablet or laptop’

Exactly 10 years ago, I unplugged.

That sounds dodgy. Let me explain.

Back in March 2015, I celebrated Global Unplugging Day by denying myself access to all my devices for 24 hours. And then I wrote about it.

Recently, I stumbled across the article – and had a good chuckle. Because what was challenging in 2015 is nigh on impossible in 2025. Especially in Cyprus…

Did you know we’re now one of the most digitally connected nations in Europe, if not the world? Over 90 per cent of our island is online, happily logging a collective two billion hours a year – about 1,460 hours per person.

As the number of landlines fall (in 2021, the island had 310,000. By 2023 we were down to 270,000), cell phones have increased: at 1.43 million, Cyprus now has more mobiles than people!

Our socials are soaring: 83 per cent of Cypriots actively use social media, placing us second only to Denmark in Europe. And our island boasts one of the highest Facebook user rates in the world – 1,282,100 active accounts as of November 2024. That’s close to full saturation.

Lastly, there’s our devices. Roughly seven years ago, the average European household had fewer than six connected devices. Today, we have 12.

So while unplugging in 2015 meant divesting myself of laptop, phone, and telly, a decade on, I’ve also got a tablet by the bed, a smartwatch on my wrist, and a GPS that tells me where I’m going (because no print map can keep up with Cyprus’ ever-growing urban spraw).

The way we use our multiplying devices has also changed.

Today, my phone runs my ageing life: health apps, calendar apps, delivery apps that save me fighting the AlphaMega crowds. Air quality apps that tell me if I can breathe. Communication apps – I now talk to my mum far more than when we lived under the same roof. And habit-tracking apps – because apparently, if I don’t log it, it never happened.

And then there’s AI: GPT, DeepSeek, MidJourney, inVideo. I’m driven by curiosity. And so I wake in the middle of the night burning to know ‘Pope Leo’s stance on migrants?’ and ‘why does everything hurt, I’m not even 50?!’

But it’s not just me who’s overconnected. Right now, there’s a 99 per cent chance you’re reading the Cyprus Mail on screen – 85 per cent of you on a mobile, 15 per cent on a tablet or laptop.

Though even if you’re viewing good, old-fashioned print, there’s probably at least one smart device within reach. Because, in this day and age, screens are our constants. They wake us up, tell us the weather, track our steps, remind us to breathe, keep us company. They’re how we shop, socialise, learn, work – and how we forget to switch off.

And that’s just it. When both Cyprus and I spend so much time online, is unplugging feasible anymore?

Well, I did give it a try. (We’ll get to that in a bit.) But what do other people think? Can you unplug, even for 24 hours?

“No,” says Andreas Gregoriou, father of three girls under 10. “My phone is my entire life. It’s not just work emails and messages. It’s how I keep track of my family: have we paid the piano teacher, when’s my anniversary, who’s got a Thursday playdate and how do we get there?”

As a whole, devices are a boon, he adds. “Try getting three kids to sit still for 20 minutes without a screen.”

Eleni Ekonomou disagrees. “I’m at a different stage of life,” says the 58-year-old. “I’m divorced, the kids are abroad, I’m an artist. So there’s no pressure to stay connected.

Eleni admits she actually unplugged for a few days last summer: “Switched off the wifi, painted, read, pottered. A couple of friends dropped in for tea, told me the latest. But I wasn’t missing anything.”

Time of life certainly makes a difference. And so does job.

“My devices are everything – office, calendar, social life,” says 24-year-old digital marketer Georgios Cleanthos. “I’m never without my phone, my smartwatch, and at least one tablet.

“It’s worse in Cyprus,” he suggests, “because we’ve just taken connection from the village to the ether. 50 years ago, if your shutters were closed, your neighbours would come round: ‘What’s up? Are you sick? Did someone die?’

“Now, it’s all ‘Why didn’t you reply to my email? Did you get my message? Have you seen my Insta post?’ I think Cyprus is digitally whipped!”

In 2021, we already knew that one in 10 young Cypriots were addicted to social media, and one in four reported problematic internet use. And, as of October last year, parliament banned the use of mobiles in schools, making a concerted effort to inform students of the benefits of the legislation.

“But we all do it anyway,” says 13-year-old Alexandros Heracleous. “We just hide it. Life can’t stop because you’re in school. And for us, life is our phones!”

I may be 40 years older, but I see his point. 

These days, devices are our lives. And for me, the prospect of 24 hours without a digital lifeline is daunting.

I’ll admit, I gave it a go. Booked a day off work. Set up an out-of-office email. Told my family I’d be unreachable. And then sat in the garden with a book.

It was delicious – glorious! And I loved all 1500 seconds of it.

Because, not 25 minutes into my digital detox, my neighbour leaned over the fence and informed me that Pope Benedict had passed. Which, in the media, is comparable to E.T. landing on Aphrodite’s Rock!

And so I reconnected – sharpish.

In this day and age, such an experiment is – I suspect – almost impossible. If it hadn’t been the Pope, it would have been something else: a client crisis, a family emergency, a muscle spasm (again!) that required a doctor’s call.

So while unplugging for a day in 2015 felt like a quirky experiment, in 2025, it’s a battle against the very infrastructure of daily existence.

Today, no matter how hard you try to switch off, life just keeps pinging.