Anyone doing or thinking about doing a digital detox?

I posit that smartphones are just fine and it’s us the people who are the problem that we can’t detach even when we clearly see that overusing the device is bad for us. Of course they are a platform for the most modern psychology to manipulate us but I view that as a good thing; the humanity collectively gradually builds resistance against manipulation. It’s slow and mostly does not work but it’s slowly getting there.

My digital detox started years ago and has been mostly successful; only ElixirForum, the orange website and one meme website remain. And I have learned to aggressively cut time on phone after waking up. At 30 minutes maximum I get up from bed because I’ve danced this dance: after being on the phone for 60-90 minutes you physically start feeling weaker, your motivation to even go to the toiled drops to unimaginably low levels and it’s very likely that you have ruined half your day at least, or 2-3 days ahead at worst.

I have only one trick up my sleeve to avoid too much distractions: “Is the thing I’m about to consume advance any of my top 5-10 goals?”. Once I started seriously asking myself this question and answering it sincerely without BS-ing myself, and started acting on the answers, 90% of my smartphone addiction problems disappeared in a manner of 4-5 weeks and have not returned.

FOMO is a powerful drug. Stay away from it. What this dorky looking chick thought about an obscure book is not important, and never was. If you really can’t close YouTube, go watch an episode of “How it’s made?”.

This is a really great idea that I’ll start employing right away. Not revolutionary, but framed very well. Thanks for sharing your approach!

Indeed not at all revolutionary. Problem with addiction is that people know most of the picture most of the time but can’t muster the willpower to act on the knowledge – something I deeply sympathise with.

Maybe reframing the struggle can help some people and push them over the edge.

How about an Osmo Nano?

They’ve actually got a decent range of handhelds:

Just went on the BBC News site and noticed this article and thought of what you said!

Screenshot 2025-10-26 at 01.28.30530×582 23.2 KB

Their expert guest on this podcast episode, psychologist Kimberley Wilson, helped Xand understand that “there’s no such thing as willpower”.

Willpower is not this magic thing inside you, instead your ability to stick to something is “about the way you’ve arranged the world around you,” he says.

For example, by planning ahead and thinking about what you’ll have for dinner, you can more easily ditch the takeaway and eat something healthy.

I think setting yourself up for success is very powerful - as per some of the things said in this thread (delete apps from devices that make it easy to get sucked in, don’t use a YouTube account and always reject cookies (bookmark your must-check channels instead) etc).

So if willpower alone isn’t quite working for someone, perhaps changing the world around you could help..

I recently did something close to it.

• I still have an iPhone but it stays at home all the time along with my iPad.
• Only the iPad has IM (whatsapp, telegram, message) and other apps.
• The iPhone has the bank apps (cuz apparently there is no other forking way to do banking now).
• I have a burner (calls and sms) and an old iphone which has only apple music.
• Every time i go out, i do a check of how much money I may spend and do the proper transfers and carry my wallet of course. Take the burner and old iphone.

I’ve been a month… doing just great. All my family and close friends now about this setup. they know they can only reach me by calling if i’m out. I’ve been moving in the afternoons drink coffee and reading books, walking around… no calls came through… no emergencies. just me and the present, local present.

just on that idea of “regressive technology”, have you taken a look on https://www.kaiostech.com/ ?

There are religions with multi-thousand years of trial-and-error practice on how to ‘detox’. I think you have to join a spiritual community with a good teacher to really move the needle.

That said: try an experiment. Turn off TV and all forms of advertising for a month. Then try watching again. See how it feels.

I don’t follow any religions but I assume you’re referring to fasting, which I’d agree can have a positive impact on your body. However when people talk about a digital detox they are generally referring to breaking an addiction to some of the worst aspects of technology: apps that employ purposely addictive dopamine-hit algorithms, i.e those that make you endlessly scroll to periodically give you a dopamine-hit, or those that do similar through other means.

We’ve got an older thread specifically on this topic: https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/avoiding-dopamine-hits-for-mental-health-and-wellbeing/43059

While most of the comments discuss various less technological devices, I’d like to join the thread about meditation and digital detox as a practice.

I did two 5-day silent retreats (aka Vipassana, though there are minor differences) this year and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done as far as the baseline dopamine reset.

Once back, I’ve had zero urge to interact with any tech unintentionally. Meaning, every time I picked up the phone or sat in front of my computer, I couldn’t help but have a strong intention to do something specific. Otherwise, the whole idea of using the device seemed silly.

I’m using the past tense because that state does wane. I’m having mixed results day to day trying to maintain it, but it requires 30+ minute meditation sessions.

While I might get upset about not having such state 24/7, that deep practice has shown me that such state is possible to begin with, and that achieving it is a trainable skill. That’s more than enough for me to keep practicing.

That whole experience made me think that the problem isn’t the devices but my relationship with them, or more broadly, the extent to which I crave a quick dopamine hit. Which makes me think that, unless I address the dopamine problem first, all other solutions are kinda backward. In a similar way to how an unhealthy person spends hours researching and ordering supplements while happily overlooking sleep and exercise.

Full support. Bad health did that to me, it forced me to prioritise very aggressively. I always loved just tinkering but at one point I realised I was just toiling meaninglessly on the computer because I did not want to do other things (more important ones at the time).

After that clicked, the rest followed almost instantaneously: I don’t sit at the computer or even look at my phone if I don’t have an idea what to do. I give myself a budget of 30-60 minutes a day of idle scrolling through memes – but news are heavily curated and time-boxed, and YouTube is a conscious decision to take time out of my day for education.

Exactly, and I said so in a previous comment upthread. Smartphones might be megaphones for amplifying bad habits but it’s all on the human: we can and must tame their usage. My smartphone and computers are tangibly useful and a net positive in my life.

Of course others are free to make the Buddhist decision to refuse a battle that they feel they cannot win. I however stayed, fought and won.