Does a digital detox work? What the experiments show

Radtke and colleagues define a digital detox as a timeout from electronic devices such as smartphones, either completely or for a specific kind of use, like social media or messaging. Their systematic review, published in Mobile Media & Communication, gathered 21 intervention studies with 3,625 participants in total, 12 of them randomised controlled trials.

The headline finding was variation. Effects on health and well-being, social relationships, self-control and performance differed from study to study. Some found benefits. Others found no effect, and a few found that well-being got worse. The authors conclude that the mechanisms are poorly understood, which is a polite way of saying nobody yet knows which detox works for whom.

That variety is partly built into the idea. A detox can mean a weekend without any devices, a month without Instagram or an evening with the phone in another room, and the studies tested all sorts of versions with all sorts of people. Averaging them together is a bit like asking whether “changing your diet” is good for you. The answer depends entirely on what you change, and what you change it to.

Sources1Source 1Radtke, T., Apel, T., Schenkel, K., Keller, J., & von Lindern, E. (2022). Digital detox: An effective solution in the smartphone era? A systematic literature review. Mobile Media & Communication, 10(2), 190–215.

The most quoted positive result comes from Hunt and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania. After a week of baseline monitoring, 143 undergraduates were randomly assigned either to limit Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to ten minutes per platform per day or to carry on as usual, for three weeks. The limited group reported significantly less loneliness and depression than the control group.

The detail that is easy to miss is that both groups also reported less anxiety and less fear of missing out than at the start. The authors suggest that simply monitoring their own use helped. It is a single study of students, with self-reported outcomes, but it hints that noticing may be part of the active ingredient.

Vanman and colleagues found a more double-edged effect. Among 138 active Facebook users, those told to give it up for five days had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those who carried on, but also lower life satisfaction. Removing a source of stress removed a source of connection too.

Sources2Source 2Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751–768.3Source 3Vanman, E. J., Baker, R., & Tobin, S. J. (2018). The burden of online friends: The effects of giving up Facebook on stress and well-being. The Journal of Social Psychology, 158(4), 496–508.

Other careful trials found nothing. Hall and colleagues randomly assigned 130 people to keep using social media as usual or to abstain for one, two, three or four weeks, with a daily diary of loneliness, well-being and quality of day throughout. Abstaining made no difference, and neither did how long it lasted. The authors note that this fits the very small effects seen in large surveys.

A phone is more than social media, and the idea that it works like an addictive drug is often behind the detox pitch. Wilcockson, Osborne and Ellis tested that directly by having smartphone users go without their phones for 24 hours and measuring mood, anxiety and craving several times. Only craving changed. Mood and anxiety stayed the same, and the authors argue that heavy phone use did not meet the criteria for an addiction in this sense.

Sources4Source 4Hall, J. A., Xing, C., Ross, E. M., & Johnson, R. M. (2021). Experimentally manipulating social media abstinence: Results of a four-week diary study. Media Psychology, 24(2), 259–275.5Source 5Wilcockson, T. D. W., Osborne, A. M., & Ellis, D. A. (2019). Digital detox: The effect of smartphone abstinence on mood, anxiety, and craving. Addictive Behaviors, 99, 106013.

Put these studies side by side and a few explanations stand out. First, what is removed matters. Limiting specific apps is different from giving up a device that also holds your calendar, maps and group chats with family. Second, what fills the gap matters. An hour away from a feed that becomes an hour of sleep or a walk is not the same as an hour of feeling left out.

Third, most studies are short, use students and rely on self-reports, and as we cover in screen time myths, people are poor judges of their own screen use. Expectations matter too. People who sign up for a study about quitting social media usually know what the researchers hope to find, and it is hard to hide from participants whether they are in the group that gave something up. Finally, a detox is by definition temporary. A week off does not change the design of the apps you return to, or the habits that brought you there. For how everyday habits actually form and change, see how long it takes to form a habit.

Sources1Source 1Radtke, T., Apel, T., Schenkel, K., Keller, J., & von Lindern, E. (2022). Digital detox: An effective solution in the smartphone era? A systematic literature review. Mobile Media & Communication, 10(2), 190–215.2Source 2Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751–768.3Source 3Vanman, E. J., Baker, R., & Tobin, S. J. (2018). The burden of online friends: The effects of giving up Facebook on stress and well-being. The Journal of Social Psychology, 158(4), 496–508.

If you want to change your relationship with your phone, the evidence favours something more targeted and more curious than a dramatic week offline. Treat it as an experiment on yourself, with a clear question: which specific use leaves me feeling worse, and what would I rather do instead?

Some of the best replacements are low-tech. Time outdoors has its own evidence base, which we look at in attention restoration and calm scenes, and the Facebook study above is a reminder that connection with people is worth protecting, not cutting.

Games deserve the same scrutiny as anything else. A game that ends when you want it to, asks nothing of you while you are away and costs nothing to put down is easier to keep in proportion than one designed to pull you back. That is the standard we hold OutBrick to: a board has a clear end, there is one daily board rather than an endless feed, and we set out in plain terms when to play and when to put the phone down.

• Check your device’s screen-time report for a week before changing anything.
• Limit the one or two apps that bother you rather than the whole phone.
• Decide what the freed time is for: sleep, a walk, a call, a book.
• Keep the things that connect you with people you care about.
• Review after a few weeks, and keep only the changes that made a difference.

Sources2Source 2Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751–768.4Source 4Hall, J. A., Xing, C., Ross, E. M., & Johnson, R. M. (2021). Experimentally manipulating social media abstinence: Results of a four-week diary study. Media Psychology, 24(2), 259–275.