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

by Catherine Price

Smartphones engage in disruptive behaviors that have traditionally been performed only by extremely annoying people. What’s more, they give us access to the entire internet. And, unlike previous technologies, we keep them near us at all times.

What’s particularly weird is that we don’t just care about other people’s judgments; we ask for them. We post photos and comments to show others that we’re lovable, that we’re popular and, on a more existential level, that we matter, and then we check our phones obsessively to see if other people—or at least their online profiles—agree. (And even though we know that we’re curating our own feeds to make our lives look as exciting and fun as possible, we forget that everyone else is doing the same thing.)

creativity is often sparked by boredom,

If you think that going cold turkey will be impossible for your children/colleagues/students, you could offer a one-minute “tech break” in the middle of the meal or class or meeting so that people can check their phones. That’s a suggestion from psychologist Larry Rosen, a professor of technology and behavior who wrote a book called iDisorder about how our phones are causing us to exhibit symptoms of psychiatric disorders like ADHD and OCD.