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

by Catherine Price

the more I used my phone to navigate my life, the less capable I felt of navigating life without my phone.

I learned about the history of written language, and how the act of reading itself—as in books, not “listicles”—can change the brain in ways that encourage deep thought.

“There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them seriously unhappy.” As she puts it, today’s teens may be physically safer than their predecessors (less likely to drive drunk, for example). But that is likely because they are “on their phone, in their room, alone, and often distressed.” Depression among teenagers is way up. Suicide rates are, too.