A Twitter Detox
For many of us, we are constantly attached to our devices, hanging on to every buzz that comes out of our pocket. For me, Twitter is the main culprit, being a constant force where any free moment is filled by mindless scrolling through celebrity drama and news headlines. I needed a break, a five day detox to reflect on the ways that these apps and devices infect our every waking moment, and how to best combat the practices they incite onto us all.
Twitter always seemed like an obvious choice–it is by far my biggest time waster. I would often jump on right after a class, during work, or even during a movie, and just scroll. The quick joys you receive from these sites are immense, so I knew that I needed to cut out at least one of these forces. In order to prove the efficacy of my results through my detox period, I will be using Apple's screen time feature to track my phone usage through the week, my watch's fitness and heart rate tracker, and Google/Snapchat's location history to monitor my travel.
On the first day of this experiment, I struggled with my overabundance of time, spending hours flipping back and forth between tabs on my laptop and YouTube videos I had no interest in watching. I went through symptoms similar to that of Johann Hari in his novel Stolen Focus, describing how he "...felt bereft, and had to go through a painful withdrawal." Tristian Harris, former Google engineer and star in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma (2020) cites how "its very hard to be with reality, the physical world, the built world–because it doesn't offer as frequent and as immediate rewards as this [phone] does." I found myself facing the exact problem that Harris describes, unable to get my quick dopamine rush that I previous received from Twitter.
As the week progressed I found more ways to fill my time, through work, school, driving, and even dogs. During this detox, I took three drives lasting over an hour each, completed my homework and two project proposals a minimum of two days before they were due, and worked an extra three hours over my scheduled times at the Quinnipiac Tech Center. Even though I felt more productive, the moment I started to get bored, I found myself opening up YouTube or TikTok instinctively, and even searching my phone for the Twitter app trying to waste some time.
Reflecting now after this detox has completed, I wonder if these types of digital interventions are worthwhile, when often these apps are crafted by some of the smartest people in the world to get you to stay online. Theda Radtke, Professor of Health Psychology and Applied Diagnostic, Institute of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Germany, had a similar notion, conducting a study to see if these digital detoxifications can be proven successful. She and her colleges concluded however that "Nevertheless, no effect across studies was found consistently among cognitive and physical performance measures after a digital detox intervention." Effectively, Professor Radtke cites that there are no clear connections showing the efficacy of digital detoxes.
““‘How many of you want to live in the world you are designing?’ There was silence in the room...Nobody put up their hand.””
These companies are desperately fighting for your attention, and they all have become scarily good at capturing it. Features like infinite scrolling, specially design algorithms, and more have all been channeled to create an unescapable experience. For us trying to pry ourselves away from our devices, a temporary digital detox might be effective in allowing you to complete a task due in the next few days, or give yourself the focus you need to finish a project without the constant notifications trying to drag you back.
Even though I know Twitter will probably end up back on my phone eventually, the time I was able to spend apart from it was gratifying, and proves to me that I can live without the constant distractions all the time and can free myself from the tech conglomerates that currently dominate our lives.
Hari, J. (2022). Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again. Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd.
Radtke, T., Apel, T., Schenkel, K., Keller, J., & von Lindern, E. (2021). Digital detox: An effective solution in the smartphone era? A systematic literature review. Mobile Media & Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579211028647