Digital Detox: definition, benefits, how to do it?

[Mis à jour le 6 février 2023 à 15h40] No more hyperconnection! Cell Phone (or Smartphone) Free Day is an opportunity to get away from screens for a while. Far from being an easy challenge, the digital detox or the digital detox consists of get rid of screens for a given time. 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or more. It is moreover the challenge launched by Léa and Manon, two cousins ​​and roommates addicted to social networks and the Internet, in the French series Détox (“Off the Hook” for the English title)broadcast on the platform netflix.

If the trend of digital detox is more and more popular, it is because digital is taking more and more place in the lives of French people who spend on average 4h22 a day in front of screens (excluding work), according to a survey conducted by BVA Group, behavioral experts. Nearly two-thirds of French people admit to being dependent on their connected tools today, and a third totally dependent, at the origin of a feeling of lack. However, these devices are not to be demonized, but rather to be used in a more responsible and benevolent way. So, at a time when the smartphones, tablets, TVs, computers and connected watches are ubiquitous in our daily lives, how to do a digital detox? And what do you gain by letting go of them for a period ? Tour of benefits and advice with Dana Castro, psychologist and psychotherapist.

What is a digital detox?

It is called “digital detox in English or digital detox in French. The term entered for the first time in the Oxford dictionary in 2014, but it is increasingly used, including in France. The digital detox corresponds to digital withdrawal. It consists of taking a break from using screens, phones, tablets or computers. Clear, for a defined period, we refrain from using our smartphone, turning on the television or even playing on our computer.

What are the benefits of a digital detox?

“Connecting to digital is simple, easy, attractive and above all occupational. It quickly becomes a habit that comes fill a gap. The screens, and particularly the telephone, are a kind of consumable: we skipwe go from a social network to a news, from a fashion photo to an entertaining video… Our brain goes in all directions and it has very little time to rest and think constructively. He is not on a sensory journey that could feed him, but rather in a form of wandering without much purpose. In the end, the overconsumption of digital leads to a fatigue (visual certainly, but especially mental and emotional) lined with a shape of boredom. It is therefore interesting to detoxify from time to time“, explains our interlocutor. In detail, doing a digital detox allows you to:

► Find yourself with yourself and nourish your inner discourse. “Digital tools are turned outward and inhibit interiority. They don’t give us many answers about ourselves. By stopping your digital connection from time to time, you reconnect with yourself, you listen to yourself more and you question your feelings, your emotions, your needs, your limits…“, lists our specialist.

► Put into perspective and stop being in a frantic race of comparison. “Digital detox is very important for self-esteem and for have a realistic view of yourselfshe says. The virtual, and particularly social networks, favor malicious comparison, and are guilt-inducing. For example, the young mother does not feel up to it when on Instagram she sees other mothers managing their family life better. People tend to compare themselves to species ofself-stated idealsbut how can we compare to something virtual?“

► Rest the psyche, gain serenity by being in the here and now “Digital detox allows you to get away from the stress, generated by the overconsumption of digital and the hyperconnection to social networks and the continuous flow of information, often anxiety-provoking, with the “fear of missing something”.

► Be healthier. The digital detox allows you to be less sedentary (we actually have more time to go for walks, play sports), reduce vision problems (screens promote visual fatigue, a risk factor for vision loss), get better quality sleep (the screen emits blue light which inhibits the secretion of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep/wake cycles).

► Gain concentration: notifications distract and constantly distract. They prevent focusing on social interactions in a “physical” and non-virtual world. Moreover, screens can make you lose track of time.

“As for quitting smoking, everyone has their own method. And then the idea is not to completely stop screens, but to have a more responsible consumption and above all, more benevolent“, would like to remind Dana Castro.

► Start gradually, over a short period. One hour, then 2, then half a day, a day or time slots (for example, from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.)… Too long and too brutal weaning is counterproductive. The idea is to put yourself in airplane mode (or turn off your phone, but airplane mode is reassuring because it allows you to have your phone on as well as access to the time) for a moment during the day and to gradually increase the duration.

► Leave your phone outside the bedroom, so as not to be tempted to turn it on as soon as you wake up or to scroll through the networks just before sleeping. Just leave your phone off in the living room, for example, and take out your good old alarm clock.

► Fight boredom and enjoy that screen-free time to read or indulge in other activities (cooking, creative hobbies, gardening, creation, exhibition…)”We tend to to get lost in the screens and wasting his time. So we use this time found to do everything we think we don’t have time to do.“, advises our interlocutor.

► Get help from apps (see the list below) which allow you to block certain accesses or even lock the phone completely. To be as calm as possible, it is better to warn your most frequent contacts that they are not worried. It is also possible to block all notifications to consciously decide which apps you want to open.

► Ask yourself about your (real) needs. Going on your phone is often compulsive. Most of the time, it is more of a reflex than a real need to consult him. And often, checking your phone allows you to have consistency, when you’re waiting for your train, when a friend is out at the restaurant, when you’re at lunch break with colleagues, at the start of an evening at which you don’t know many people. So every time you touch your phone ask yourself if you really need to consult it (is it to call someone or just to pass the time?) and what you could have done instead if you had not consulted it.

► Take on a screen time challengenot to exceed (screen time can be viewed in the settings of the phone or tablet) and help each other with loved ones, friends, family, spouse to tend to more responsible screen consumption.

► Take advantage of the holidays to disconnect. Digital makes us lose a chance to experience something else, to refocus on ourselves, to rebuild ourselves and to return to work in better shape. Everyone must ask themselves the question of which media they need to disconnect from in order to be able to (really) enjoy the holidays.

4 applications to facilitate digital detox

• flipd which allows you to block all applications such as Facebook, Snapchat… but which allows you to continue to send SMS in the event of an emergency.
• call door which allows managers to block applications, SMS, e-mails, calls… from their teams’ professional mobile phones, for the duration of their choice.
• Digital Detox who offers limited access to his phone during the challenge (some apps are inaccessible and blocked)
• forest which proposes to define a duration during which you must disconnect (1 to 12 hours). During this period, a small seed appears on your home screen and grows into a tree that withers and disappears if you touch your phone.

How do you know if you need a digital detox?

We feel fatigue, weariness, saturation or deep boredom that often sounds like a click, the click that you have to disconnect

“In practice, almost everyone would need, in absolute terms, to detoxify and do a digital detoxsays our expert. Some people more than others of course. It’s not possible not to realize at some point that your digital consumption is problematic. We feel fatigue, weariness, saturation or deep boredom that often sounds like a click, the click that you have to disconnect. Specialists even describe a pathology called nomophobia (the fear of being without your phone)“. In theorythere are tests to know if you are addicted to your phone. They have no diagnostic value but they allow you to situate yourself on the scale of digital consumption. For example, there is one that was developed by the Dr. David Greenfield, Founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. It’s about a series of 12 questions to be answered with yes or no. Each yes corresponds to 1 point. It is estimated thatfrom 4 points or more, it is likely that the person has a problematic or compulsive use pattern. Among the questions:

• Do you regularly sleep with your smartphone on under your pillow or next to your bed?
• Do you find yourself watching and responding to texts, tweets, and emails at all hours of the day and night, even if it means interrupting other things you’re doing?
• Do you feel uncomfortable when you accidentally leave your phone or other digital device in the car or at home that you have no network or it is down?
• When you eat, is your smartphone still part of the table setting?
• Do you find yourself regularly spending mindless time staring at your smartphone, tablet, or computer, even though there might be better or more productive things to do?

Thanks to Dana Castro, psychologist and psychotherapist.