I Tried a Digital Detox… and It Changed More Than I Expected
Photo by Rizki Kurniawan on Unsplash
We LOVE entering January with a New Year, New Me mindset.
We’ve all done it before—making a checklist or creating some sort of grand goal list… only to abandon it by February.
And although I’m definitely guilty of not following through on some of my goals, something that’s helped me stick to them is breaking them down into smaller, more realistic chunks.
So, in the spirit of JOMO (the Joy of Missing Out), if you were thinking about challenging yourself this year, my advice would be: try a digital detox.
What’s a digital detox?
It’s basically a break from a part of the digital world that’s eating up too much of your time or focus. For a lot of us, that’s social media (seriously, go check your Screen Time… yikes). But for others, it might be video games, streaming services, texting, or something else that quietly consumes every pocket of your free time. And while those things can be fun and even positive in moderation, they can also sneakily chip away at your energy, attention, and motivation.
Why a digital detox helps:
It gives your brain breathing room. Without the constant scroll, ding, and dopamine hits, you have more mental space to actually choose what you want to spend your time on, instead of letting your apps choose for you.
My experience:
The summer before my senior year of high school, I decided to try a detox—not to be “off-grid cool,” but because I needed a reset. I wanted to clear my head, set goals, and avoid the overstimulation that was making it hard to focus on what actually mattered to me.
At first, I committed to just one week. Honestly? That first week wasn’t as hard as I expected. But week two? Brutal. That’s when the motivation dips and the small waves of FOMO start hitting. I stuck with my goal of avoiding Instagram and other socials until I had actually reached my reset point.
That “just two weeks” ended up turning into almost six months. I didn’t even plan for it. By the end, I was so used to not thinking about what was happening online that it felt normal. My screen time dropped drastically, my relationships felt more rooted in real connection instead of likes and comments, and I realized just how much mental space I’d freed up. And once I did finally log back into my social media apps, I found the posture in how I was using them completely changed to a much healthier habit. It was no longer a boredom saver, but now just a once or twice a day pit-stop. Mid-summer goal setting … crushed it.
How to make a digital detox realistic for you:
Not everyone can (or needs to) go six months without socials. Maybe you work online, or maybe your friend group lives in a group chat. That’s okay. Start small. Try weekly or monthly detox challenges instead:
In February, take a break from a different app each week.
By summer, you might be ready to log off for a full month.
Or mix it up—spend one week using your phone only in the evenings, or swap your usual morning scroll for a walk.
However you design it, the point is to help you recentre your relationship with technology. Social media and digital tools can be amazing, but don’t let them do more for you than you do for yourself.
Before you go, grab your free Joy Audit! Subscribe to our mailing list below and we’ll send you our 10 science-backed steps to a healthier relationship with tech.
