I Did a Realistic Digital Detox: Here's What I Learned

Breaking up with social media can be surprisingly easy and liberating. Lucky for you, reader, I cannot stop talking about it. Here's how I did it and what I learned along the way.

One of my most precious memories from my teenage years is spending hot summer days reading. I would immerse myself in Nabokov or Orwell for hours without interruptions and dedicate time to reflect on the book after turning the last page.

Now, such moments are rare, if they occur at all. For years, I blamed the heavy load of adult responsibilities and exhaustion due to having demanding jobs. But then I found myself watching a movie while scrolling my phone too many times. Conversations with friends revealed that this became all too familiar for many, but we still kept sending each other nonsense reels, with screen time spanning for hours.

"Brain rot" was named Oxford Word of the Year 2024. It describes the negative impact of consuming low-quality, low-value content found online. This is exactly how I feel when spending too much time on social networks — rotting, I thought. The next day, I deleted social media apps from my phone and (almost) didn't look back.

I stumbled upon my first challenge the day after when Spotify Wrapped rolled out. I felt the urge to share what I consider my exquisite taste in music. But I didn't; dopamine didn't kick in, and the urge was soon gone.

And so began my realistic digital detox mostly focusing on social media. While I started it due to concerns about my personal well-being, what I found in the meantime indicates that the widespread addiction to our phones can have far-reaching implications globally.

Why are we so glued to our phones?

Social media platforms drive surges of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that gives us a feeling of pleasure, to keep users coming back repeatedly. Seeing likes on our Facebook posts or new followers on Instagram triggers the brain's reward center, creating a high comparable to the one caused by drugs or alcohol.

There is little doubt that tech companies do it intentionally.

Sean Parker, Facebook's founding president, admitted in 2017 that the company's founders knew they were creating an addictive site that would exploit a vulnerability in human psychology.

An ongoing lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, alleges that these platforms are designed to get underage users addicted, and they push harmful content, including anorexia-related, to vulnerable users.

About nine in ten Americans own a smartphone, which they use on average for more than five hours a day. These devices are so ingrained in our ways of life that for some people, separation from them causes significant anxiety about being offline, called "nomophobia." It affects between 6% and 73% of individuals among various populations and can play a role in developing mental and personality disorders.

Professor Shoshana Zuboff suggests that we live in a new economic order called surveillance capitalism. This order involves giving away our personal data to big tech companies to predict, influence, and modify our behavior.

The owners of these big tech companies are among the richest in the world, and seeing them in the front rows at Donald Trump's inauguration suggests that their influence will only grow. This raises the question about our ability to fight against powerful algorithms controlled by some of the most influential people globally.

In his book Stolen Focus, journalist Johann Hari quotes former Google strategist James Williams, who compares individual efforts to refrain from social media to wearing a gas mask for two days a week outside as a solution to pollution. In other words, our personal detoxes don't address the systematic issues.

However, pessimism from the industry insiders didn't stop me from doing my own digital detox.

What are the benefits of digital detox?

Digital detox refers to refraining from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers. For many of us, such a detox is simply impossible due to our jobs, while smartphones are necessary to access our bank accounts and public transport tickets, among other services.

My digital detox is primarily focused on social networks; therefore, it can be called a social media detox.

According to Theda Radtke, a professor of health psychology and applied diagnostics at the University of Wuppertal in Germany, research suggests that digital detox interventions are not as effective as expected. While they seem to reduce depressive symptoms, hardly any effects can be found for mental well-being, life satisfaction, and stress.

Instead of temporary detoxes, it is suggested adopting sustainable, mindful digital habits. This includes being aware of your screen time, understanding the emotions driving device use, and setting intentional boundaries.

Radtke

However, there is data suggesting that taking some time off social media rather than doing a complete digital detox can have a positive effect on mental health.

A 2023 study included 31 young adults who completed a two-week social media digital detox, limiting their social media use to 30 minutes per day. The detox improved their smartphone and social media addiction, sleep, satisfaction with life, stress, perceived wellness, and supportive relationships.

A 2021 study of university students found that most participants who did a social media detox reported a positive change in mood, reduced anxiety, and improved sleep.

Sarah Woodruff, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Windsor and the author of the 2023 study, says the key to successful social media detox is getting rid of following people who don't make us feel good about ourselves. If we don't keep to our limits, it's important to stay kind to ourselves.

"Have the mindset that you won't know everything that's going on online, but that's okay," she tells Wellnesspulse.

For the detox to succeed, Woodruff recommends figuring out what we like and don't like about being online and cleaning up what we don't.

Beware of the risks of a digital detox

Radtke says that completely giving up electronic devices may be unrealistic, as it can cause problems in organizing everyday life, such as buying a bus ticket or keeping in touch with others.

Digital time outs on vacation may evoke feelings of craving, fear of missing out, or even symptoms of withdrawal.

In many cases, you don't learn how to use digital devices well during digital detox interventions. As soon as you are back in everyday life, the same negative things like technostress happen again.

Radtke

How did I do my digital detox?

In retrospect, my efforts to reduce screen time started over a year ago with small, easy-to-implement steps.

• I don't use my phone for at least one hour after waking up. Delaying reading worrisome news or work emails until later in the morning helps me start the day with less rush and anxiety and hear my own thoughts. To break out of the habit of grabbing my phone first thing in the morning, I introduced new — and healthier — dopamine sources like tasty breakfast or coffee with a book.

• I started by switching off notifications. Before deleting social networks, I switched off notifications for them and messaging apps. That was a great reminder that most messages aren't urgent, and if they are, people will call.

However, these techniques only help avoid distractions to some extent — they don't stop you from scrolling when bored or exhausted. That's why I eventually took more drastic measures.

• I deleted social media apps X, Instagram, and Facebook, leaving only two messaging mobile applications to connect with people I talk to regularly. Suddenly, the phone became just a boring object. Sure, you can still lose the sense of time going through the old photos — but how often and for how long can you do that?

During Christmas, I downloaded Instagram again, hoping I had saved the reel advertising the camera I wanted to buy. I even shared a story of having a hot pot with my friends. But this time, posting felt different and even ridiculous: my friends were right in front of me, and we were having such a great time together, yet I was on my phone.

• At the same time, I'm working on developing habits that can replace the infinite scrolling when using my phone. I do French lessons on Duolingo, a popular language-learning app. Unlike social media, where you can effortlessly spend hours, French conjugation requires intense thinking, resulting in much less screen time.

• I didn't go to extremes with my digital detox — I didn't quit social media for good. Because I need Instagram for work, I use its desktop version, which is so inconvenient that I never spend too much time on it. The desktop version works perfectly for reading and responding to messages.

After all, social networks are here to stay, and they can help establish or maintain meaningful connections.

Did digital detox change my life?

My smartphone addiction was only minor, and I didn't notice drastic life improvements. However, my digital detox brought some positive changes.

• I use my free time more productively. I've been reading more, making progress with French, finally reorganizing my closet, and starting breathing exercises, among many other things I didn't have time for.

• My mind is (a little bit) calmer. Although the news is only getting more horrifying, I learn about it from the actual media rather than social networks. This helps me manage anxieties and limits the time I spend reading about global conflicts.

Spending an excessive amount of time reading negative news, also known as doomscrolling, has been shown to cause higher levels of stress, existential anxiety, and even secondary post-traumatic disorder.

• I consume less. Although I never actively followed lifestyle influencers driving overconsumption, I may still be affected by seeing beautiful and often unnecessary things online.

According to a Pew Research survey, about one-third of female social media users bought something after seeing an influencer's or content creator's post. Another survey suggests that 48% of social media users have impulsively purchased a product seen on social media.

• My attention span improved. It comes as no surprise that notifications constantly distract us, negatively impacting our ability to focus. When our focus is broken, it takes us 23 minutes to fully refocus. With phones constantly pinging, Americans spend one hour each day dealing with distractions.

• I find myself in a flow state more often. A flow state is a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity, often leading to a loss of time. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the pioneer in flow research, called it "the secret to happiness," as the state of deep focus was shown to help against depression and burnout.

• I am more present. I don't reach for my phone to make a video at a concert because I know there is no app I can use to post it. I keep my phone in my purse during dinner, so my attention is dedicated only to the people I'm with.

In his "Stolen Focus," Hari writes that without focus, humanity will lose the ability to unite to solve major problems. He argues that solving big problems requires the sustained focus of many people over the years. In democracies, a population has to be able to pay attention long enough to identify problems and hold their leaders accountable if they fail to deliver the solutions to these problems.

Plenty of evidence suggests that social media has fueled extreme political polarization, which is now evident more than ever.

In an experiment conducted before the 2018 Midterm elections, participants were asked to deactivate Facebook for four weeks and increase offline activity at the same time. During this period, participants saw significantly reduced polarization of views on policy issues, although it didn't diminish divisiveness based strictly on party identity.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in his book The Anxious Generation that the mental health of children plummeted with the boom of social networks. Giving a fresh look into existing evidence, he argues that social media disproportionately harms girls who are more likely to spend time on Instagram and other visually-oriented apps, driving perfectionism and social comparisons.

Will I continue with my digital detox?

The only downside of staying away from social media is being less connected with my long-distance friends. In the past, I could watch their stories on Instagram and learn what was happening in their lives, even if it was a glamorized version of reality.

Meanwhile, Woodruff doesn't see any risks in doing a social media detox.

She tells Wellnesspulse, "Perhaps you don't know what's going on all the time, but assuming you have communication and relationships in real life, it shouldn't make a difference."

So, is my digital detox successful? While my digital — or social media detox — isn't a life-changing experience, it nevertheless has a positive impact on productivity and mental health. While I cannot guarantee I won't download Instagram again to post pictures from my next vacation, my reduced smartphone use is likely here to stay.