Could you live without your smartphone? With Anastasia Dedyukhina, Chief Inspiration Officer of Consciously Digital

Data Malarkey - the podcast about using data smarter

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles talks to Anastasia Dedyukhina, the founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Consciously Digital. Consciously Digital is a coaching, training and development company – it’s more than that; it’s a movement – that’s looking to build a world in which technology brings out the best in humanity. And very definitely not the worst, as many of the apparently “free” social and digital platforms have done with such negative impact. When their currency is our attention, we and our mental and physical health are the losers.

Herself a digital marketer for more than a decade, Anastasia has first-hand experience of what it’s like to constantly battle the dopamine hit of another like, share, or retweet. She rose to prominence and public attention in 2016 with her TEDxWandsworth talk titled “Could you live without a smartphone?”, which currently has almost 400,000 views on YouTube. She followed this two years later with her powerful book, Homo Distractus – Fight for your choices and identity in the digital age, and is today one of the world’s leading digital wellbeing coaches through her consultancy, Consciously Digital, which she founded before both the TED talk and the book came out.

Our conversation was recorded remotely, via the medium of Riverside.fm, on 16 March 2023.

Thanks to Joe Hickey for production support.

Podcast artwork by Shatter Media.

Voice over by Samantha Boffin.

Anastasia’s business, Consciously Digital, is not anti-data or anti-tech. The company has 100-plus digital wellbeing coaches, all providing guidance to people of all ages so that they can get proper balance in their life when it comes to data, social and digital media platforms, and digital devices. Anastasia often finds herself outside, in the garden, and moving; walking, playing volleyball, and above all dancing. When doing any of those things, digital devices and social media don’t have a chance to get in the way.

With a PhD in media and communication, Anastasia is very familiar with data and statistics, but in her current role she seeks to blend data-driven decision-making with softer skills. This hybrid – narrative AND numbers, stories AND statistics, shared with humanity and empathy – is her preferred mode of making sense of the world. A world which seems to have found a new god in Data.

The data we collect helps us to create more or less imperfect models of the world, and with a nod to the British statistician George Box, we agree that while “all models are wrong”, nevertheless, “some are useful”. Collecting data affects the data – just like particles being observed in physics change behaviour – and Anastasia shows herself to be very skilled at citing, reporting, and explaining the meaning of scientific (particularly psychological) studies. The one about wearables reporting on sleep patterns is worth the entry fee for this podcast alone.

In terms of practical advice for bringing balance into our digital lives, Anastasia recommends:

• Never looking at your phone (let alone doom-scrolling) when eating

• Keep your phone out of the bedroom

• Prioritise activities that give you energy – including movement and being in nature

• When you lose energy from too much time exposed to digital content, take a break

• Remove social media apps from your phone and only use them on less mobile devices

Very wise advice from someone who knows, who’s been out of balance with digital and data, and now spends her time advising people how to find and enjoy the balance she’s found for herself.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Anastasia’s LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiadedyukhina/

Consciously Digital – https://www.consciously-digital.com/

Anastasia’s TEDxPeterborough talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOul_7qAOws&feature=youtu.be

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