This autumn is looking very different for Mayim Bialik and Jeopardy! The former Call Me Kat star has stepped away from her hosting position in solidarity with the ongoing WGA strike, leaving Ken Jennings as the primary host. In the immediate aftermath of her – potentially temporary – replacement, Bialik unplugged from social media and was met by a one-of-a-kind experience.
Jennings and Bialik have shared the role of Jeopardy! host for a year now, but the game show’s latest season has officially begun filming without her. Bialik has been transparent on her social media platforms and on her podcast about her mental health struggles on the game show and off, and she has been equally informative regarding her isolation from the internet in the immediate aftermath of stepping away from the game show.
Mayim Bialik unplugged from social media after her split from ‘Jeopardy!’
Bialik did not return to Jeopardy! to film the rest of the previous season or the latest season of content in support of the guild writers who have been on strike since May. On September 3, Bialik shared a video to YouTube outlining a social media purge she took part in.
RELATED: ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Mayim Bialik Says She Feels ‘Useless, Irrelevant, And Worthless’
“I went totally off the grid for a 2-week digital detox, and you won’t believe the craziness that ensued,” she captioned the video. She further outlined that during this time, she allowed herself “No cell phone. No computer. No social media. No news. No emails. No phone calls. No talking to friends, my mom- very little of anything.”
In recent months, Bialik has admitted to having negative feelings, to the great detriment of her mental health, from a variety of causes, both internal and external. Staying unplugged from all things digital helped Bialik enjoy a healthy reprieve; she recharged and gained an all-new perspective on life and herself.
Lessons from life beyond the digital grind
Fans have been divided since Bialik stepped away from her hosting duties; it is now almost guaranteed she won’t be returning before 2024 because of the trajectory of the WGA strike. Some fans are fine with Jennings remaining the face of Jeopardy! indefinitely, while others consider Bialik the best for the job.
But just about everyone who watched Bialik’s discussion of her digital detox on YouTube agrees: her experience and subsequent wisdom are inspirational.
Stepping away from Jeopardy! completely changed her day to a pattern she was utterly unfamiliar with, to the point where she “started dreading the evenings because of all the work I hadn’t accomplished during the day. Sleeping even close to soundly was becoming harder and harder, and my eating habits were becoming shakier by the day.”
Staying unplugged helped Bialik slow down and reassess her life, values, and pace of living. “We’re addicts if we live a life driven by others’ needs, rather than our own,” she informed viewers in her video. People connected with her observation, “I felt simultaneously compelled to check the news and dreading checking the news” and the need to always have something planned, or else self-disgust settles in. They also felt encouraged by her assurance that it is okay to not want to be consumed by media consumption or any other draining activity – and she saw firsthand what a transformative experience it is to step away from it all.
Check out the video below! Do you agree with her points?