Digital detox

Digital detox | Daily Tribune

Digital detoxification, or detox for short, is seen nowadays as fashionably “cool.” Well, at least that seems to be so with the Filipino educated class, raising our curiosity.

Generally, the trend is a growing number of educated Filipinos, even teens, are aiming to reduce overall screen-time or social media use in the coming days and months.

However, it’s probably altogether a different case with our working classes, who presumably need another form of detox, while slaving daily under exploitative capitalism. But that’s for another day.

Anyway, those getting into digital detox proclaim a digital slowing-down by regular no-screen days or, in a more practical way, going on extended retreats from smartphone use, and fiddling more with “analog” ecosystems like older Nokia-like phones, film cameras, fountain pens, notebook journals, vinyl records, printed books and encouragingly, revisiting newspapers and magazines.

Intentionally indulging in the tangible and experiential analog ecosystems does speak of seeking reprieve from the depraved digital era.

But while it’s extraordinary that many are starting to cut themselves off from digital devices, the idea of taking a break from technology to “reset” the brain is catchy enough.

Trendy “reset the brain” seems a corollary to the other trendy idea of “brain rot,” which Google’s AI engine sums up as the internet culture’s “slang for cognitive/mental fogginess from excessive, low-quality online content, leading to shorter attention spans and mental fatigue… (leading to) a decline in focus, motivation and deep thinking due to endless scrolling, fast-paced videos and shallow information.”

If anything, engaging in digital detox is like saying you don’t want to be a screen-addled, apocalypse-minded nervous wreck and are just wanting more time for more productive activities.

Reining yourself in, however, from the toxicity and rottenness of internet culture and starting your quest to defeat distraction begs the basic question: Does digital “detox” work?

The simple answer is: Yes, it can.

While more evidence is needed, Psychology Today magazine reports some experimental studies show that taking a break from social media — particularly from freaky influencers and facts-agnostic, confrontational political propaganda peddlers — can have a positive effect on mental health, relieve stress and boost well-being.

Given that promise, further studies are also saying that even a brief digital “detox” improves mental health, supposedly comparable to reversing 10 years of cognitive decline.

What makes these effects possible?

Common sense, of course, tells us that staying away from the internet for regular periods reduces one’s consumption of digital media and its increasingly venal contents.

In turn, spending less time on phones and digital devices frees an estimated 2.5 hours for other activities like reading, spending time outdoors and personal chats with friends and family.

Moreover, with less smartphone use, studies show people feel less distracted, presumably allowing them to enjoy and be mindful of whatever they are actually doing.

Still, there’s as yet no tangible evidence for how and why digital “detox” improves people’s ability to pay attention, says Psychology Today.

But one possibility is that “most everyday tasks are no match for the easy and constant stimulation available on” digital devices, promoting the phenomenon of doomscrolling.

However, when that easy source of dopamine or the feel-good hormone is restricted, a person rediscovers pleasures from activities requiring effort and sustained attention.

In sum, practicing digital “detox” offers some degree of self-protection. So much so we’re able to reclaim our lives and easily contain and reject the duplicities of greedy American tech billionaires and amoral political manipulators.