Ten years ago, Facebook was an infant, smartphones were nonexistent and the World Wide Web was still nascent.
Technology appears to have changed our lives for the better, but like everything: Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Here are nine tips to keep your digital sanity in the year 2015.
1. Invest in an old-fashioned alarm clock. Admit it: Sleeping with your cell phone next to your bed means you're falling asleep many nights with the device in your hand or too close for comfort. Unplug 30 minutes before sleep and 30 minutes after waking up. Charge your phone in the kitchen and call us in the morning (30 minutes after you wake up).
2. Turn off your work email when you're not supposed to be working. More than 60 percent of Americans plan to work during vacation these days, which, if you remember, is not vacation. Also, if you're answering nonurgent work emails at 11 p.m., it's time to hide your inbox during nonwork hours. (Don't tell your boss.)
3. Wait a few weeks before checking out the latest and greatest new social media network or app. If there is still buzz after a few weeks, dive in. This will save you time and energy by not reacting when everyone else does.
4. Unsubscribe from most of your LinkedIn emails. Do you really need to know who has viewed your LinkedIn profile on a daily basis? How important is it to see every endorsement? Quiet that inbox monster and activate weekly digests.
5. Check Twitter no more than 10 times a day. Yes, you read that correctly: Ten times. Twitter is the ultimate time suck. If you're madly refreshing Twitter at every red light, you have an issue. Twitter's new 'While you were away' feature will keep you in the know.
6. Speaking of Twitter, are you following 3,973 people? Make a secondary list of people you'd like to keep tabs on, but may not need to hear from every day. It will make your overall experience more delightful.
7. Want to clean up your e-mail inbox? Use Nudgemail, an automated email-reminder service that will shoot back your e-mails at a predetermined time; think of it as a digital boomerang. For example, if you'd like an e-mail to return to you tomorrow, forward said email to tomorrow@nudgemail.com. Want to push off an email to Sept. 13, 2016? Send that email to 09132016@nudgemail.com. Nudgemail is free, but beware: It doesn't work if your email has an attachment.
8. If your phone's home screen is littered with unused apps it may be time to do some mobile housekeeping. Delete apps that you no longer use, place rarely used apps in folders and bring your most used apps to the front. While this sounds obvious, smartphone users tend to get complacent with the e-clutter. Invest a few minutes and clean up your mobile act.
9. Sick of waiting on hold listening to awful music? Download the award-winning FastCustomer app. With the click of a button, a customer service agent from your choice of over 3,000 companies will call you back, all while you take care of other things. Enjoy the free time.
Have another tip to help keep one's digital sanity? Share it with us in the comment section.