How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition: The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan

by Catherine Price

In 2000, a team of researchers led by Eleanor Maguire at University College London published a study in which they scanned London cab drivers’ brains to see how they compared to the brains of people who had not devoted months of their lives to memorizing the intricacies of the city. The researchers discovered that the area responsible for spatial memories (the posterior hippocampus) was larger in the cab drivers’ brains than in the non-cabbies’. The time they’d spent studying London’s streets had had a physical impact. Their thoughts had changed their brains. What’s more, the longer a person had been a cab driver—in other words, the more time they’d spent practicing—the more noticeable the change. Think about that for a second. And then think back to the fact that as of 2017, Americans were spending an estimated average of more than four hours a day on their phones. If you spend four hours a day doing anything, you’re going to get pretty good at it. If I spent four hours a day practicing the piano, I’d be able to accomplish my long-standing goal of learning to sight-read music within a month. If I spent four hours a day studying Spanish, it wouldn’t be long before I’d be able to have a basic conversation.