I point to three main motives for taking a digital break. Being present is an overarching concern. Digital media allow us to be in several places at once, but people also want to be present where they are, in their actual physical locations, with the people who are with them there. Although a sharp boundary between online and offline communication is hard to pinpoint, face-to-face communication is frequently positioned as more authentic.

Productivity is second. Digital tools are time-savers but also big-time time thieves. People have things to do apart from being online: read a longer text, write something, get on with their homework, or do something with their hands. Online media interrupt workflows, and concentration wanes due to self-interruptions.

A third motive is to salvage privacy. Social media offer community, but people self-restrict to protect their privacy. There is unease about sharing one’s private information, and concerns are rising after numerous scandals. There is also a desire to protect one’s life against the onslaught of others’ private information, either seen as banal and uninteresting, or glorified and impossible to live up to.

Ambivalence emerges from these descriptions; online media offer both pleasure and pain.

Read more:

Syvertsen, T. (2022, October 18). The pleasure, the pain and the politics of a digital detox. Psyche. https://psyche.co/ideas/the-pleasure-the-pain-and-the-politics-of-a-digital-detox