CLOSING THE SCREEN TO OPEN OUR EYES
- ARTISTIC HUB MAGAZINE
- May 4
- 5 min read
Updated: May 7
Digital Detox as the Art of Silence and Presence
There’s a moment we all recognize, even if we rarely admit it. That quiet reflex when your hand reaches for a phone that didn’t ring. A habit, not a need. A glance that drifts across a screen, not searching for anything, just out of routine. And perhaps in that instant, something becomes clear. We’ve forgotten what boredom feels like. What peace feels like. What it’s like to have a conversation without distractions. To simply be. Here. Without noise. Without scrolling. Without the constant pull to respond.
In today’s world, digital detox isn’t about going back in time. It’s not escapism. It’s not denial. It’s an invitation to listen to the silence. To check in with ourselves. And more and more people around the world are choosing to do just that.
Redefining Our Relationship with Technology
At its core, digital detox means consciously stepping away from devices like phones, computers, and social media to restore balance. What once sounded extreme - unplugging for seven days, hiking into places without signal - has now become more practical. It’s about reclaiming control. Setting boundaries. Turning off notifications. Take a walk without your phone. An hour of stillness before sleep. A weekend without screens. More like a reset than a rejection.
The idea gained attention in the early 2010s and quickly grew into a movement. In 2010, public figures, journalists, and therapists started announcing their breaks from digital platforms. Fifteen years later, the trend has gone mainstream. The devices we use every day, from iPhones to Androids, now include built-in screen-time trackers. Luxury hotels offer digital silence packages. The term "digital wellbeing" has become part of the wellness world, alongside yoga, meditation, and therapy.
But the question is no longer whether we can disconnect. It’s why we would want to.
The Wake-Up Call in the Numbers
The global average for daily screen time now exceeds six hours. Around two and a half hours are spent just on social media. Phones are checked up to 150 times a day. Each message, each like, each notification chips away at our attention. And attention, neuroscientists remind us, is limited. It wears down.
Studies show a clear connection between excessive screen time and increased anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. The human brain wasn’t designed to jump from one fragment of content to another nonstop. It needs rhythm. Breathing space. Pause.
Children and teens are especially at risk. Research from 2023 revealed that teenagers in some countries spend up to nine hours a day on digital devices. Many admit they don’t know how to disconnect. Some say that when they try, they feel like they’re missing out.
In reality, what we miss most is life off-screen.
In 2025, the average adult spends around 6 hours and 40 minutes daily in front of a screen. In the United States, that number reaches 7 hours and 3 minutes. A report by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that children in the US spend over five hours a day on screens, with negative effects on both mental and physical health. According to the American Psychological Association, 41 percent of teens who use social media most frequently rate their overall mental health as poor or very poor. In Europe, the European Commission’s 2024 report highlights that nearly half of young people report emotional or psychosocial challenges, partly related to excessive use of digital devices.
Escapes That Unplug You
Over the past three years, there’s been a clear rise in places that offer true digital detox experiences. In the UK, the Unplugged network offers tiny cabins surrounded by nature, no Wi-Fi, no TV, and a lockbox for your phone. In Italy, Logout Livenow organizes device-free weekends filled with outdoor activities and shared meals. In Umbria, Eremito offers monastery-inspired solitude and silence, with not a single screen in sight.
In the United States, Getaway offers cabins in remote areas, a few hours from the city, designed for intentional disconnection. In Mexico and Arizona, wellness centers like Rancho La Puerta and Miraval have introduced phone-free zones. Guests are given cloth pouches for their phones upon arrival. And a moment to breathe.
These places don’t just offer somewhere to stay. They offer a feeling. The return of presence. A conversation that lasts longer than a message. A view that drifts toward the horizon, not a screen. Time, once again, with depth.
The Voices of Disconnection
People who try digital detox often describe their experience in simple but powerful terms. More energy. Better sleep. Real conversations. A stronger connection with themselves and others. A new awareness of how much was lost while watching other people’s lives instead of living their own.
One artist in New York traded her smartphone for an old-school keypad phone. She says she rediscovered boredom, and with it, her creativity. A woman in London, working in communications, deleted her social media for nine months and realized what a day feels like when it’s not about reacting.
Neither of them abandoned technology. They simply found a way to use it intentionally, not compulsively.
The Art of Silence
Art has always had the power to stop us. To shift our perspective. Today, many artists are addressing the digital overload through works that speak louder than any headline.
In his photo series “Removed”, Eric Pickersgill captures people staring into their hands, where phones have been digitally erased. The body language remains. The smiles are gone. The gaze is empty. Gali May Lucas’s sculpture Absorbed by Light shows three young people sitting side by side, lit by the glow of invisible screens. It’s familiar. And unsettling.
Author William Powers, in his book Hamlet’s BlackBerry, argues that modern life demands a space to retreat - not physically, but mentally. Technology, he writes, should be used mindfully. Not by default, but by choice.
In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell calls for a strike of attention. A conscious decision not to give away what matters most - our focus. Not to algorithms. Not to headlines. Not to meaningless debates with strangers.
A Return to Ourselves
Digital detox is not the goal. It’s not the solution. It’s a space. A space where we can hear our thoughts again. Reconnect with the people who matter. Pay attention to the world around us. The world that continues to exist even when we’re offline.
In a time when presence has become rare, it has also become precious. That may be why detox has found its place in modern life. Not because we reject technology, but because we choose ourselves.
The art of living, as Artistic Hub Magazine sees it, isn’t found in noise. It’s in rhythm. In the quiet details of daily life. In the decision to be present, aware, and connected to ourselves, to others, to the world. And in the moment we choose to be unreachable, we may find something quietly profound.
We’re finally present to ourselves.
