The average American spends four to five hours a day on their phone. For some folks, it’s the first thing they reach for in the morning and the last thing they put down at night. Juries all over America are agreeing that tech giants should be held responsible for creating addictive, harmful products.
But a digital detox can roll back the clocks in age-related cognitive decline by 10 years. It also improves mental health.
In a study, 467 participants blocked internet access on their smartphones for two weeks. Their phones could still text and make calls. The participants were allowed to use laptops and tablets to access the internet. The researchers said phones lend themselves to “more compulsive and mindless” internet usage that interrupts other activities like exercise, conversations and even hobbies. Computers and tablets are usually used more purposefully. At the end of two weeks, the participants had huge drops in their screen time. They went from 314 minutes a day on average to 161 minutes on average.
“To put these effects into context, the change in objectively measured sustained attention ability is about the same magnitude as 10 years of age-related decline,” the study’s authors wrote.
“All of us have a somewhat unhealthy relationship with our phones,” said study co-author Prof. Kostadin Kushlev of Georgetown Univ.
Even cutting back on smartphone use can make a difference. Another recent study found that reducing smartphone usage for a week lowers anxiety, depression and insomnia. But researchers noted that not everyone was equally affected, and determining who is most vulnerable to social media is essential.
Prof. John Torous of Harvard Medical School was the lead author on the second paper. He said it’s about finding balance and recognizing when social media and screen time are a problem. “For some people, their use is too much or too little, and for others it’s just right. To identify who is harmed by it is very important,” he said.
If you have felt like your attention span isn’t what it used to be, or your phone is becoming an extension of your body, turning off the internet might be a great detox for you. Not only will it help you reclaim more of your day, but having the internet not work will make you realize how many times you mindlessly open your phone to scroll for no reason. Cutting scrolling out of your day will give you time to do things you really care about. And — if you do want to scroll — you can always reach for a tablet or boot up a computer. You can even turn the internet back on on your phone, but you should do it with more awareness.
