CLOSING THE SCREEN TO OPEN OUR EYES
- AH Magazine
- May 4, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 16
Digital Detox as the Art of Silence and Presence
There is a moment we all recognize, even if we rarely admit it. That quiet reflex when your hand reaches for a phone that did not 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 have forgotten what boredom feels like. What peace feels like. What it is 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 is not about going back in time. It is not escapism. It is not denial. It is 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, such as unplugging for seven days or hiking into places without signal, has now become more practical. It is about reclaiming control. Setting boundaries. Turning off notifications. Taking 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 2000s and quickly grew into a movement. In 2010, public figures, journalists, and therapists began announcing their breaks from digital platforms. Fifteen years later, the trend has become 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 entered the wellness world alongside yoga, meditation, and therapy.
But the question is no longer whether we can disconnect. It is 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 solely on social media. Phones are checked up to one hundred and fifty times a day. Each message, each like, each notification gradually reduces our attention. And attention, as neuroscientists remind us, is limited. It becomes depleted over time.
Studies show a clear connection between excessive screen time and increased anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. The human brain was not designed to shift constantly from one fragment of content to another without pause. It needs rhythm. Breathing space. Moments of stillness.
Children and teenagers are especially at risk. Research published in 2023, alongside 2021–2022 datasets, suggests that teens can spend many hours a day on screen media, with some reports placing daily use well above eight hours. Many admit they do not know how to disconnect. Some say that when they try, they feel as if they are missing out.
In reality, what we miss most is life off-screen.
Recent DataReportal-based estimates put average daily screen time in the United States at about 6 hours and 40 minutes. A large U.S. survey by Common Sense Media reports that daily screen media use among tweens averaged 5 hours and 33 minutes in 2021, while teens averaged 8 hours and 39 minutes.
Multiple studies and public health reviews link heavy social media use and harmful online experiences with poorer mental health outcomes among adolescents. In Europe, the European Commission's report from the year 2024 notes that nearly half of young people report emotional or psychosocial difficulties, in part related to the excessive use of digital devices.
Escapes That Unplug You
Over the past three years, there has been a clear increase in places that offer genuine digital detox experiences. In the United Kingdom, the Unplugged network provides small cabins surrounded by nature, with no Wi-Fi, no television and a secure lockbox for your phone. In Italy, Logout Livenow organizes weekends without devices, filled with outdoor activities and shared meals. In Umbria, Eremito offers monastery-inspired solitude and silence, without a single screen in sight.
In the United States, Getaway offers cabins in remote areas just a few hours from major cities, designed for intentional disconnection. In Mexico and Arizona, wellness centers such as Rancho La Puerta and Miraval have introduced phone-free zones. Guests receive cloth pouches for their phones upon arrival. And a moment to breathe.
These places do not simply offer a place to stay. They offer a feeling. The return of presence. A conversation that lasts longer than a message. A view that extends toward the horizon, not toward a screen. Time, once again, with depth.
The Voices of Disconnection
People who try digital detox often describe their experience in simple yet powerful terms. More energy. Better sleep. Real conversations. A stronger connection with themselves and with others. A new awareness of how much had been lost while watching other people’s lives instead of living their own.
One artist in New York exchanged her smartphone for a basic keypad phone. She says she rediscovered boredom, and with it, her creativity. A woman in London, who works in communications, deleted her social media accounts for nine months and discovered what a day feels like when it is not shaped by constant reaction.
Neither of them rejected technology. They simply found a way to use it with intention, rather than out of habit.
The Art of Silence
Art has always had the power to stop us. To shift our perspective. Today, many artists respond to digital overload with works that cut through the noise in ways headlines rarely can.
In his photo series titled Removed, Eric Pickersgill portrays people staring into their hands, where mobile phones have been digitally erased. The posture remains. The gestures are familiar. But the smiles are gone. The gaze is vacant.
Gali May Lucas’s sculpture Absorbed by Light shows three young figures sitting side by side, illuminated by the glow of invisible screens. It is instantly recognizable. And quietly unsettling.
Author William Powers, in his book Hamlet’s BlackBerry, argues that modern life requires space for retreat, not only physical but also mental. Technology, he writes, should be used with intention. Not by default, but by choice.
In How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell calls for a strike of attention. A deliberate refusal to give away what matters most: our focus. Not to algorithms. Not to headlines. Not to meaningless arguments with strangers.
A Return to Ourselves
Digital detox is not the goal. It is not the solution. It is 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 are 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, lives in quieter places. It is in rhythm. In the quiet details of daily life. In the decision to be present, attentive, and connected to ourselves, to others, and to the world. And in the moment we choose to be unreachable, we may find something quietly profound.
We return to ourselves.
