PwC partner Monty Hamilton caught up with Brian a few days after his keynote at SXSW Interactive to discuss the topic of digital distractions. In one snippet from the interview, Brian explains, “I did research where I interviewed women from 61 to six and the entire preface of the research was to understand the impact of Instagram, Snapchat, all of the apps on their image of self beauty, self-esteem. It turns out that it’s just unbelievable that people are trying to live to these false standards, these false livelihoods that just aren’t even real in the first place. Just on the superficial level it’s leading to things like – it’s called dysmorphia, in some cases Snapchat dysmorphia or filter dysmorphia – where women are trying to look like how they look online.” He continues, “At some point you feel like you need to look like that in the real world. None of this is healthy.”

Brian also admitted how much his own life had been affected by online distractions, “You fool yourself, or at least blind yourself into seeing all of these things that you’re actually not doing as well as you could. What ended up happening with the book was, none of the superficial things were solving the problem. What I realised was that the decisions that I was making about my relationship with technology and how I was living my best life was from a different centre of reference than how I had grown up.”

Watch the video of the complete interview here: https://www.digitalpulse.pwc.com.au/interview-brian-solis-digital-detox/