Digital devices like computers, tablets, televisions and especially smartphones which are now ubiquitous due to their multi-functionalities, adaptability, portability and purposeful design, are now integral to and indispensable for modern lives, and they influence, indeed dictate how we equip, interact, communicate, entertain, and receive services such as banking, healthcare, education and even navigation.

These compulsive contrivances are integrating and making the users dependent on them for almost everything. As most people, particularly generation Z, remain obsessively and incessantly plugged-in to digital screens ~ mostly on unproductive social media or games ~ the apprehension of David Thoreau that humans would one day become “prisoner to machine” or slaves to screens appears to have come to fruition.

The gadgets surely offer and afford a multitude of advantages and conveniences, but they also, like most other technological innovations in human history, pose myriad challenges and tribulations on mental, psychological, cognitive, behavioral and social thriving and wellbeing. The situation is rapidly reaching such a pass where it is incumbent to strive for a balanced and progressive symmetry between the benefits of gadgets and socio-personal safeness. One countermovement, generically known as Digital Detox (DD) has emerged as a palliative passageway or expedient recourse against the upsetting on-fall of excessive digital screen time and the downsides of continuous connectivity.

The movement is gathering steam and sustenance, principally in European countries and medical literature. DD refers to intentional and voluntary timeouts from digital devices, including their attached applications. With the praxis that may be summarised as disconnect to connect, the DD identifies the fallouts of habitual screen usage, seeks to reclaim control over tech devices, reinvents the virtue of the in-person relationship, prioritises mental well-being, and strives for a healthy balance in the personal and intellectual spheres. Flexible, action-oriented countermeasures entail rational, productive, and minimal use of tech gadgets. The objective is to simplify device use, underscore no-frills usage, and adhere to de-cluttered practices.

The energy, time and conscientiousness gained from the abstinence process should be better utilised for in-person relationships with family, friends, and community members, as well as for introspection, capacity building, and mindfulness. DD is critical. A Lund University study in 2018 demonstrated that if one is to attain and maintain self-control, productivity, improved well-being, and a healthy balance between inperson and virtual relationships, DD is decisive for one’s private, professional, and social lives.

Research also disclosed that limiting social media use to about 30 minutes a day can significantly reduce incidences like depression, sleep disorders, loneliness, etc. As the countervailing concept to the fear of missing out (FOMO) and fear of being offline (FOBO) which decode why device users remain continuously connected, DD emphasises the joy of missing out (JOMO) which harps on the values of freedom from digital distractions and the centrality of disconnection for full engagement with people and activities that matter most in our lives. Cristina Crook in The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World elaborated on her experience; “When we step offline, it’s amazing how little we miss… the world keeps on turning without my words, without my likes and dislikes. It made me feel small.

It showed me I am not so important as I think.” The movement recommends an easy and incremental strategy, depending on individuallevel feasibility. The methods extend to fixing one’s offline period, device management frames like blocking notification buttons or purging intrusive applications, and setting goals like a phased social media detox or general screen Sabbath. To minimise the behavioural addiction problems, DD suggests common-sense boundary settings: screen breaks during study, project work, bed and meal times, interaction with family and friends.

Regardless of the method and goal one willingly opts for, the initial phase of detoxing is, however, challenging. A deadstop from non-stop screen time is both tumultuous and treacherous. After all, entrenched and addictive habits die hard. To assuage the initial discomfort and hiccups, one tangible way can be to underscore the disproportionate tolls of tech devices on personal, professional, and social terrain. When one gets fairly convinced that an untangled life is rewarding enough, at least for selfness, the consequent resolve will help in salvaging one from becoming a slave to the screen. The already palpable cognitive corrosion consequent upon the enslaving use of smartphones ~ otherwise regarded as an immersive technological tool with toxic applications intended to grab users’ browsing data for a profit ~ is one case in point that can persuade one to proceed with a detox strategy. Incidentally, smartphones are reported to be more demonic, having ample upsetting impacts on the health, cognitive flourishing, and productive capacity of the users.

Initially crafted as a simple interpersonal communication tool, technological innovations have traversed from the basic mobile phone to the feature phone and now the devilish smartphones. The advantages of smartphones, like quick access to information and the transaction of multifarious tasks, are turning out to be their major curse. Coupled with usurpation of basic cognitive activities and information overload, dependence on smartphones for information assistance induces the process of memory offloading, which inter alia implies disarray and decline in

(i) certain types of memory recall;

(ii) ability of critical thinking and problem solving; and

(iii) capacity of creativity or active creation.

The human brain is not designed to efficiently process multiple tasks at a time. But multitasking is ingrained in smartphones, and users’ propensity to multitask by juggling multiple activities simultaneously ~ texting while watching videos ~ can impair cognitive performance and productivity. While the human mind is by nature prone to habitual diversions, the fanatical use of smartphones perpetuates those. The impulsive check on notifications, social media posts, or customised feeds fragments mental attention, interrupts focus, and impairs the ability to concentrate for an extended period. Such distractions obstruct the memory consolidation or memory encoding process (transferring information from short-term memory to longterm memory), without which retention and recall of information become problematic.

Research reveals that the human attention span is shorter than that of goldfish, and it is gradually slumping. In the early 2000s, one could focus for about ten seconds on average, but it subsequently came down to eight seconds. And for the user susceptible to nonstop disruptions, it is an uphill task to concentrate on anything, literally. While each mental distraction reportedly demands about twelve minutes to regain preceding focus, relentless derangements day in and day out incapacitate smartphone users in their rumination, reflection, reasoning, thinking capability, and capacity building. Studies substantiate that the addictive use of smartphones is closely correlated with diminishing reasoning capacity, lower numerical processing ability, and weaker impulse control. And such debilities make one irrelevant or unfit for the struggle called life.

Honing of skill sets, academic proficiency, or intellectual competency can only enable one to navigate the challenges and storms life throws in one’s way. Considerable downtime is absolutely essential for contemplation, introspection, equipping, and preparing oneself in this highly competitive world where survival is getting tougher and livelihood options are either transforming or shrinking. The incapacity arising out of cognitive stultification and intellectual inaptitude can only make, particularly, the younger generation incompetent or irrelevant. Such an eventuality is fraught with momentous socioeconomic upheavals.

(The writer is former Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufanganj College, Cooch Behar, West Bengal and can be reached at amalcob@rediffmail.com)