How to log off
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Tech Review Explains
Sick of spending all your time staring at your devices? Hereâs how to strike a healthier balance.
By
Rhiannon Williams archive page
Stephanie Arnett/MITTR
Tech Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what's coming next. You can read more here .
As soon as I wake up, I grab my phone to check any messages that have arrived overnight and thumb through news alerts before scrolling quickly through Twitter and Instagram. At work, Iâm tethered to Slack and email, apart from the occasional TikTok video or meme I send to my friends over WhatsApp. And if I end up watching mindless reality TV in the evening (hello, Love Island ), Iâll inevitably head back to Twitter to see if everyone else is as wound up by the contestantsâ latest antics as I am.
None of this makes me feel bad, exactly. But it doesnât make me feel great, either. Itâs easy to lose hours to pointless scrolling with nothing to show for it.
Sound familiar?
In search of ways to cut down on aimless time online, I went to talk to some experts about how to forge a healthier, happier relationship with my devices and the internet. Here's my mini-guide on how to log off.
Ask yourself questions
First, itâs worth digging into why you really want to log off. Screen time has a bad reputation, and there are plenty of negative headlines blaming the amount of time we spend on devices for everything from reduced attention span to depression and anxiety.
But thereâs a growing body of evidence suggesting that reducing your screen time wonât in itself make you happier, and that general device usage isnât a reliable predictor of any of those things. A large 2019 study from the University of Oxford found that the amount of time adolescents spent using digital devices had little impact on their mental health. The problem isnât necessarily the amount of time youâre spending scrolling on the phone as much as what youâre looking at.
âA lot of these headline statements are quite misleading because itâs so dependent on how you use social media or technologies, and who you are, and your history and your motivation,â says Amy Orben of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK, who co-wrote the study.
People also have a tendency to misappropriate neuroscience in a way that makes their internet use sound dangerous and unhealthy, says Theodora Sutton, a digital anthropologist based in the UK who spent time with âdigital detoxersâ in California for her PhD. âI find people can be too critical of this stuff,â she adds. âPeople just need to have fun if they want to have fun.â
Thinking carefully about how flicking through TikTok videos and sifting through news feeds is making you feel can help you pinpoint whether there are reasons to stop and prevent you from making pointless sweeping changes, says David Ellis, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Bath in the UK, who contributed to a 2019 UK government report about the effects of social media and screen use on young peopleâs health.
For example, he points out, thereâs no need to go on a full digital detox if itâs actually only Instagramâs endless highlights reel thatâs making you unhappyâyou might just want to set a limit on how much time you spend on that specific app. âAlso, is it actually the technology thatâs the issue? Or is it the person thatâs annoying you on WhatsApp?â he says.
Start to set boundaries
If youâve done that part and still think thereâs a problem, there are steps you can take. Once youâve isolated the root cause of any unhappinessâwhether thatâs a specific person pestering you, the kind of content you come across within a specific app, or just a desire to spend more time in the real worldâyou can set boundaries that make you feel more in control.
It can help to treat your internet use like intermittent fasting, with strategies such as going online only during circumscribed hours and not every day, says Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford School of Medicine and author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence . âTry deleting the apps that cause you to wander to parts of the internet you donât want to go to, and make a specific to-do list of what youâre going to do online before you get online,â she adds. âStick to that list.â
Break the mindless cycle
If, like me, you find that your app-checking has become a handy distraction or a way to kill time when youâre bored, you can teach yourself to break the habit and build healthier habits instead. Jud Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown Universityâs Mindfulness Center, recommends a three-step process for breaking the cycle.
The first step is recognizing that youâre in a habit loop. Take stock of the fact that you have a compulsion to refresh your work emails even on vacation, for example. Write these issues down so you can keep a record of what youâd like to address.
The second is to ask yourself what Brewer calls a key question that can apply to any behavior: ââWhat am I getting from this?â Our brains are wired to keep doing the things they find rewarding, whether itâs smoking, eating, or checking social media, he explains. âIf somethingâs rewarding, weâre going to keep doing itâthatâs how reinforcement learning works. So you can actually subvert that dominant paradigm by having people pay attention to exactly how rewarding the behavior is.â This will help you to recognize whatâs good and whatâs a waste of time.
The third and final step involves identifying the bigger, better offerâthe more rewarding reward that helps you break the habit loop.
This involves asking ourselves what checking social media feels like, choosing to be curious (which is intrinsically rewarding) about why we want to know whatâs happening on Instagram or in our inboxes. We can then compare these feelings with how we feel when we read or exercise, for example, to identify which is the more rewarding activity. âThis works even for clinical conditions,â Brewer adds.
Breaking out of doomscrolling malaise requires careful thought, but it is possible. Speaking to these experts has taught me the importance of catching myself and asking if I really want to watch a load of Instagram stories posted by people I donât even like, or if Iâd rather work my way through the articles Iâve saved in Pocket. Iâm more mindful, more focused, and more conscious about what I allow on my screen. Apart from Love Island. Thatâs one habit Iâm not willing to kick.
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by Rhiannon Williams
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Tech Review Explains. Sick of spending all your time staring at your devices? Hereâs how to strike a healthier balance. By. Rhiannon Williams archive page. Stephanie Arnett/MITTR. Tech Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what's coming next. You can read more here . As soon as I wake up, I grab my phone to check any messages that have arrived overnight and thumb through news alerts before scrolling quickly through Twitter and Instagram. At work, Iâm tethered to Slack and email, apart from the occasional TikTok video or meme I send to my friends over WhatsApp. And if I end up watching mindless reality TV in the evening (hello, Love Island ), Iâll inevitably head back to Twitter to see if everyone else is as wound up by the contestantsâ latest antics as I am. None of this makes me feel bad, exactly. But it doesnât make me feel great, either. Itâs easy to lose hours to pointless scrolling with nothing to show for it. Sound familiar? In search of ways to cut down on aimless time online, I went to talk to some experts about how to forge a healthier, happier relationship with my devices and the internet. Here's my mini-guide on how to log off. Ask yourself questions. First, itâs worth digging into why you really want to log off. Screen time has a bad reputation, and there are plenty of negative headlines blaming the amount of time we spend on devices for everything from reduced attention span to depression and anxiety. But thereâs a growing body of evidence suggesting that reducing your screen time wonât in itself make you happier, and that general device usage isnât a reliable predictor of any of those things. A large 2019 study from the University of Oxford found that the amount of time adolescents spent using digital devices had little impact on their mental health. The problem isnât necessarily the amount of time youâre spending scrolling on the phone as much as what youâre looking at. âA lot of these headline statements are quite misleading because itâs so dependent on how you use social media or technologies, and who you are, and your history and your motivation,â says Amy Orben of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK, who co-wrote the study. People also have a tendency to misappropriate neuroscience in a way that makes their internet use sound dangerous and unhealthy, says Theodora Sutton, a digital anthropologist based in the UK who spent time with âdigital detoxersâ in California for her PhD. âI find people can be too critical of this stuff,â she adds. âPeople just need to have fun if they want to have fun.â Thinking carefully about how flicking through TikTok videos and sifting through news feeds is making you feel can help you pinpoint whether there are reasons to stop and prevent you from making pointless sweeping changes, says David Ellis, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Bath in the UK, who contributed to a 2019 UK government report about the effects of social media and screen use on young peopleâs health. For example, he points out, thereâs no need to go on a full digital detox if itâs actually only Instagramâs endless highlights reel thatâs making you unhappyâyou might just want to set a limit on how much time you spend on that specific app. âAlso, is it actually the technology thatâs the issue? Or is it the person thatâs annoying you on WhatsApp?â he says. Start to set boundaries. If youâve done that part and still think thereâs a problem, there are steps you can take. Once youâve isolated the root cause of any unhappinessâwhether thatâs a specific person pestering you, the kind of content you come across within a specific app, or just a desire to spend more time in the real worldâyou can set boundaries that make you feel more in control. It can help to treat your internet use like intermittent fasting, with strategies such as going online only during circumscribed hours and not every day, says Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford School of Medicine and author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence . âTry deleting the apps that cause you to wander to parts of the internet you donât want to go to, and make a specific to-do list of what youâre going to do online before you get online,â she adds. âStick to that list.â Break the mindless cycle. If, like me, you find that your app-checking has become a handy distraction or a way to kill time when youâre bored, you can teach yourself to break the habit and build healthier habits instead. Jud Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown Universityâs Mindfulness Center, recommends a three-step process for breaking the cycle. The first step is recognizing that youâre in a habit loop. Take stock of the fact that you have a compulsion to refresh your work emails even on vacation, for example. Write these issues down so you can keep a record of what youâd like to address. The second is to ask yourself what Brewer calls a key question that can apply to any behavior: ââWhat am I getting from this?â Our brains are wired to keep doing the things they find rewarding, whether itâs smoking, eating, or checking social media, he explains. âIf somethingâs rewarding, weâre going to keep doing itâthatâs how reinforcement learning works. So you can actually subvert that dominant paradigm by having people pay attention to exactly how rewarding the behavior is.â This will help you to recognize whatâs good and whatâs a waste of time. The third and final step involves identifying the bigger, better offerâthe more rewarding reward that helps you break the habit loop. This involves asking ourselves what checking social media feels like, choosing to be curious (which is intrinsically rewarding) about why we want to know whatâs happening on Instagram or in our inboxes. We can then compare these feelings with how we feel when we read or exercise, for example, to identify which is the more rewarding activity. âThis works even for clinical conditions,â Brewer adds. Breaking out of doomscrolling malaise requires careful thought, but it is possible. Speaking to these experts has taught me the importance of catching myself and asking if I really want to watch a load of Instagram stories posted by people I donât even like, or if Iâd rather work my way through the articles Iâve saved in Pocket. Iâm more mindful, more focused, and more conscious about what I allow on my screen. Apart from Love Island. Thatâs one habit Iâm not willing to kick. hide. by Rhiannon Williams. Share. linkedin link opens in a new window. twitter link opens in a new window. facebook link opens in a new window. email link opens in a new window. Popular How Rust went from a side project to the worldâs most-loved programming language Clive Thompson The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it Will Douglas Heaven Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong? Rebecca Ackermann These scientists used CRISPR to put an alligator gene into catfish Jessica Hamzelou. Deep Dive. Tech Review Explains. Everything you need to know about the wild world of heat pumps. Heat pumps could help address climate change and save you money. Hereâs how they work. By. Casey Crownhart archive page. ChatGPT is everywhere. Hereâs where it came from. OpenAIâs breakout hit was an overnight sensationâbut it is built on decades of research. By. Will Douglas Heaven archive page. How did China come to dominate the world of electric cars? From generous government subsidies to support for lithium batteries, here are the keys to understanding how China managed to build a world-leading industry in electric vehicles. By. Zeyi Yang archive page. Ethereum moved to proof of stake. Why canât Bitcoin? There is no technical obstacle to making the notoriously energy-hungry cryptocurrency far more efficientâjust a social one. By. Amy Castor archive page. Stay connected. Illustration by Rose Wong. Get the latest updates from MIT Technology Review. Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more. Enter your email. Privacy Policy. Thank you for submitting your email! Explore more newsletters. It looks like something went wrong. Weâre having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters youâd like to receive.