How to unplug from your devices in 2015

Electronic escape: How to get some space from your devices in 2015

Along with quitting smoking and losing weight, one of the top New Year's resolutions, according to Twitter, is finding ways to unplug from our smart phones, tablets and other technological devices.

NewYorker.com editor Nicholas Thompson said smart phones "are helpful for almost everything we do" but have become too much for some people.

"We become kind of zombies. We stare into them too much. We spend way too much time on them," Thompson told "CBS This Morning." "A lot of people, at the end of the day, think gosh we should have been a little more present with the humans in my life not with my phone."

Thompson said there are things big and small people can do to limit time spent on their phone.

One option is downloading the app Moment that allows you to set a limit of the time spent on your phone and buzzes when you have reached that point.

"It's...very effective because it makes you aware of your habit," Thompson said. "It's like if you are trying to stop biting your nails and suddenly being aware of when you are biting your nails. So it's a way of using technology to make you aware of something you want to slow down."

Other ways to get some space from your devices is to literally get some space from them, by keeping the phone out of certain areas of your home.

"A lot of it is geography moving the phone for example out your bedroom so you don't check it right when you get up or right when you go to sleep," Thompson said. "You use your watch or use an alarm clock."

This is also one of the crucial tips involved in doing a digital detox, in which you remove yourself from technology for a period of time before carefully reintroducing gadgets into your daily life.

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