The Digital Detox Experiment

I recently conducted a social experiment with a dozen students of mine. We locked our cell phones away for the weekend in an effort to "digitally detox."

I wish I had recorded the reactions of my students when I first pitched the idea. I was met with anxious, panic, wide-eyed, disbelief. No joke. It was like watching the five stages of grief in time-lapse: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance; however, not all students reached the final stage. The excuses as to why certain students couldn't participate came rolling in. "What if my parents need to text me?" "What if I get stuck somewhere?" How will I keep in touch with friends?" "I need it for homework."

It was clear to me at that moment: CELL PHONES ARE BECOMING AN ADDICTION.

The whole idea to digitally detox came about because of three programs I watched online in the course of a week (insert acknowledgment of irony here). These three programs resulted in the perfect mental storm. Firstly, I had been watching, Black Mirror, a series that explores "techno-paranoia [and] is a contemporary reworking of "The Twilight Zone" with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world." Quite frankly, this show freaks me out. The episode that really sent me over the edge followed the life of a girl who begins to downward spiral as she loses her popularity or "likes" after a number of unfortunate social interactions. It takes place in a world where every social interaction gets digitally rated by the people we come across. Everyone has the same app on their phone and immediately following a transaction such as buying coffee, or even bumping into an old friend, individuals take out their phones, point them at one another and give them a rating using the app. It got me thinking, Instagram is about four degrees of separation from this app.

The next program was a documentary called, Minimalism. Simply put, it documents the lives of people who have chosen to live simply. It wasn't necessarily about disconnecting from our digital world, more so, the idea to de-clutter our lives and live with less. The film talks about getting out of the proverbial rat-race and how we've been brainwashed to believe that if you aren't consuming at an exponential rate, you are not successful. They challenge the notion of what success looks like. I couldn't help but make the mental connection that social media perpetuates the notion that success is a big house full of stuff from Pottery Barn. This led me to wonder what the long term effect of voyeurism via social media will be. I'm not too sure, but I know I'm nervous.

The final bullet was a viral video that came across my Facebook feed . It was an interview with Simon Sinek, speaking about, what he terms as, The Millenial Paradox. He talks about the addiction of cell phones and compares it to substance abuse. He also speaks about how we are having trouble developing deeper human connections these days as we become increasingly dependent on our devices.  

I began to reflect on my personal dependence of my phone and how often I mindlessly scroll through the same three apps to pass the time. I then began to think about my students, having grown up as digital natives and future generations of people who, will not only be digital natives themselves, but will be raised by parents who have never known a digital free world. I began to think about a digital-free world and if the pendulum will ever swing back to a time before devices. Hence, the idea for a device-free weekend was born. I wanted my students to know what it was like. I wanted them to experience boredom, the need for landlines, and life without Google, YouTube, or Netflix.

The school that I work for published an article outlining the social experiment and documented some student reflections. My students talk candidly about their cell phone tendencies and reliance.

“I learned that I am pretty reliant on technology, especially when I’m bored,” Devon says. “It opened my eyes to how much I can do, instead of just scrolling through stuff on my phone.”

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