Chronically Online | A Workshop on Digital Fatigue & Burnout
Internet Society India Mumbai Chapter - 30 May 2026
VIDEO | AUDIO | RECAP EN / ES / FR | ARCHIVE | PERMALINK
Speakers: Ayushi Vaishnav - Secretary, ISOC India Mumbai Chapter; Vatsal Parmar - Your Space; Yogitha Karthik - Your Space; Kalyani Damle - Your Space; Rashi Nevatia - Your Space; Vatsla Srivastava - President, ISOC India Mumbai Chapter; Dr. Shroff - participant
Moderator: Manas Joshi
Welcome and setting the context
Ayushi Vaishnav welcomed participants to the workshop, explaining that it addressed a growing concern in modern digital life. She observed that people increasingly spend much of their day online for work, study, communication, entertainment, and relaxation. While digital technologies provide connection and convenience, constant notifications, prolonged screen exposure, and expectations of continuous availability can quietly lead to mental exhaustion. She thanked the Internet Society India Mumbai Chapter leadership and Your Space for collaborating on the session before handing over to moderator Manas Joshi.
Manas Joshi situated the discussion within ISOC’s broader mission. While Internet Society traditionally focuses on Internet policy, infrastructure, openness, security, and accessibility, he argued that understanding how digital spaces influence attention, relationships, work, learning, rest, and everyday life is equally important. The workshop was not intended as an argument against technology but as an opportunity to develop healthier relationships with it. He then introduced the Your Space team.
Introducing Your Space
Vatsal Parmar described Your Space as a new initiative founded by five people working in the mental health field who had observed significant gaps in available support systems. He introduced the team of psychologists—Sakshi, Rashi, Kalyani, and Yogitha—and explained that the workshop had been carefully designed to leave participants feeling lighter and better equipped to understand their own digital habits.
Icebreaker: How being online changes us
Yogitha Karthik began with an interactive discussion about recent social media slang and trends. Participants mentioned expressions such as “yapper,” “aura,” “brain rot,” and other Internet phrases that have rapidly entered everyday language.
She used the conversation to illustrate how living online affects not only what people consume but also how they think, communicate, and interpret experiences. Digital life increasingly shapes language, identity, moods, relationships, self-image, and the perceived need to document enjoyable moments for social media. She noted that participants had already identified during registration that social media significantly influences how they view themselves. The workshop would therefore examine digital fatigue alongside sleep, emotional energy, workplace expectations, and the pressure to remain constantly reachable.
Activity: Sitting with nothing
Kalyani Damle asked participants to set aside their devices for several minutes and simply sit quietly, observing their thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
When participants reflected afterward, several described the silence as peaceful and meditative, while others admitted feeling restless or experiencing an immediate urge to check their phones. Many commented that the brief exercise felt surprisingly long.
Kalyani explained that this discomfort reflected how constant digital stimulation has changed people’s relationship with boredom. Activities such as daydreaming or simply sitting quietly have become difficult because the brain has become accustomed to continuous input. Frequent switching between apps and streams of content generates constant emotional stimulation that gradually exhausts cognitive resources without people realizing it.
Reflecting on digital routines
Participants discussed changes they wished to make in their own digital habits.
Common responses included:
Reducing pressure to respond immediately to messages.
Limiting doomscrolling, particularly late at night.
Avoiding checking phones immediately after waking.
Building healthier morning and evening routines.
Reading books instead of ending the day with social media.
Kalyani emphasized that many participants already understood what their unhealthy patterns were. The challenge was intentionally replacing them with routines that supported mental wellbeing rather than automatically reaching for phones whenever there was free time.
Recognizing the positive side of digital life
The facilitators stressed that the Internet is not inherently harmful.
Participants identified numerous positive online experiences, including:
Maintaining relationships across long distances.
Finding supportive communities.
Learning new skills.
Accessing educational content.
Listening to music.
Self-help resources.
Expressing themselves creatively.
One participant recommended an application called “Slowly,” which recreates the experience of exchanging handwritten letters by introducing deliberate delivery delays, encouraging slower communication.
Kalyani observed that while people are connected to many others online, the more meaningful question is whether they actually feel connected.
Activity: Four minutes of scrolling
Rashi Nevatia then asked everyone to do the opposite of the earlier exercise by spending several minutes scrolling normally through their preferred social media platform.
Afterward she asked participants what they had seen.
Most could remember only the last or most recent post and struggled to recall earlier content. Participants described consuming an unpredictable mixture of cooking videos, pets, weddings, diets, news, and countless unrelated topics.
Rashi explained that this illustrated how the brain processes a rapid succession of unrelated emotional stimuli. Although scrolling often feels restful, the brain continues working continuously as it absorbs highly varied information. She asked participants to notice how mentally scattered they felt before moving into a guided relaxation exercise.
Guided relaxation and grounding
Following approximately ten minutes of guided relaxation, participants overwhelmingly reported feeling calmer, more focused, and less mentally chaotic.
Rashi contrasted these feelings with the fragmented mental state produced by social media scrolling. She argued that genuine rest differs fundamentally from simply consuming more content. Activities such as walking, reading, exercising, spending time in nature, listening to music, or quietly sitting with one’s own thoughts allow the brain to recover rather than continue processing stimulation.
Participants identified many personal grounding activities including:
Walking outdoors.
Reading.
Exercise.
Sitting in nature.
Listening to music.
Drinking a milkshake.
Looking around their surroundings.
Touching grass.
Spending time away from screens.
Rashi encouraged participants to become more aware of these restorative activities and deliberately incorporate them into daily routines.
Understanding burnout through a visual demonstration
Using a paintbrush dipped in green paint, Kalyani Damle demonstrated how burnout develops.
Initially the brush produced bold, vibrant strokes, representing abundant energy. As the brush continued without being replenished, the strokes became progressively lighter until eventually no paint remained.
She explained that burnout follows the same pattern. People begin with energy and motivation, gradually expend emotional resources through work and caregiving, and eventually continue functioning despite having nothing left to give. Rest is not a sign of weakness but the equivalent of dipping the brush back into paint, allowing energy to be restored.
She emphasized that burnout should be viewed not as personal failure but as an indication that something in one’s routines or environment requires adjustment.
Identifying what drains and restores energy
Participants reflected on activities that either depleted or replenished them.
Examples of draining experiences included:
Long commutes.
Overthinking.
Exams.
Workplace deadlines.
Constant laptop use.
Toxic workplaces.
Responsibility overload.
Reading emails immediately upon waking.
Activities participants found restorative included:
Travel.
Dancing.
Cooking.
Music.
Sleep.
Hobbies.
Friends.
Looking out the window.
Tea.
Nature.
Kalyani noted that many people instinctively turn to phones when already exhausted, even though social media often compounds rather than relieves fatigue by exposing them to endless content, news, and emotional stimulation. Becoming conscious of both energy drains and energy sources was presented as an essential step toward preventing burnout.
Connected versus feeling connected
Returning to an earlier question, the workshop explored the distinction between being digitally connected and genuinely feeling connected.
Participants offered thoughtful reflections.
One observed that colleagues might simply be connected, while friends generate genuine connection. Another suggested that being connected reflects proximity, whereas feeling connected reflects presence.
Jahaanvi challenged the assumption that online relationships are inherently weaker, explaining that she had formed meaningful friendships entirely online that felt deeply authentic.
Ruchi Chaudhury shared a personal experience as a single mother by choice. She explained that online communities of women in similar circumstances provided validation and emotional support comparable to conversations with close friends. For her, online connection could genuinely satisfy emotional needs rather than merely simulate them.
The facilitators acknowledged that digital spaces can provide important affirmation and community. The objective was therefore not to reject online relationships but to understand consciously the role they serve and distinguish intentional connection from habitual, mindless consumption.
The crowded room metaphor
Yogitha Karthik asked participants to imagine the mind as a room.
Originally the room had space for boredom, reflection, and daydreaming. Over time, however, notifications, messages, comparisons, expectations, algorithms, and endless content entered the room until it became crowded and noisy.
This constant mental occupation, she suggested, explains why silence increasingly feels uncomfortable. The workshop’s goal was not digital detox or deleting social media but simply learning to recognize when the room has become too crowded and intentionally creating moments of quiet.
Reflection resources and practical tools
The Your Space team introduced a post-workshop reflection pack containing practical resources.
These included:
A five-minute pause exercise.
Burnout self-checks.
Reflection prompts.
Personal “rest versus stimulation” lists.
Suggestions for establishing digital boundaries.
Grounding exercises.
Meditation resources.
Participants were encouraged to customize these practices according to their own needs rather than following a single universal formula.
Participant reflections
Dr. Shroff praised the workshop while emphasizing that digital wellbeing remains highly individual. He argued that social media affects different people differently and that sustainable change depends upon personal awareness and discipline. While practical tools are valuable, lasting change requires individuals to continue applying them after the workshop concludes.
Manas Joshi agreed that continued reflection was essential and expressed hope that the provided materials would help participants avoid reverting immediately to unhealthy habits. He noted that the workshop represented a different type of Internet Society event, complementing its traditional technology and policy discussions by examining the human experience of digital life. Participants responded enthusiastically in the chat, requesting additional sessions and describing the workshop as engaging, reflective, and practical.
Closing remarks
Ayushi Vaishnav thanked the Your Space facilitators, moderator Manas Joshi, the Internet Society India Mumbai Chapter leadership, advisory board, and all participants for contributing to a thoughtful discussion. She encouraged everyone to carry the workshop’s lessons into their daily lives and reminded attendees that the reflection materials would be shared after the event.
Vatsla Srivastava concluded by thanking participants for spending part of their Saturday evening exploring digital wellbeing. She acknowledged the irony of holding such a discussion online while expressing hope that future sessions could also take place in person. She encouraged participants to remain involved with both ISOC India Mumbai Chapter and Your Space before wishing everyone a good evening.
RESOURCES
ISOC India Mumbai Chapter — host chapter of the workshop
Your Space — mental health initiative that led the workshop, founded by Vatsal Parmar with psychologists Sakshi, Rashi, Kalyani, and Yogitha
Chronically Online: A Workshop on Digital Fatigue & Burnout — event page and livestream
Slowly — pen-pal app simulating classic letter writing, recommended by Luqman Farooqui for slower, more intentional communication
Internet Society — global nonprofit behind the ISOC chapters