Digital Detox Detour
TAoN No. 201: What I learned from my (involuntary) "sabbatical." Plus a new Icebreaker, and more
The Wall Street Journal reports that this year’s trendy New Year resolution is “the digital detox.” (Gift link.) This makes sense. A digital sabbatical, or even a digital sabbath, sounds so refreshing. Who wouldn’t welcome a break from the constant intrusions of the Internet and our various mobile devices?
Well, to be honest, I didn’t welcome it when a snafu with our ISP took us offline for about 36 hours recently – a digital quasi-sabbath we did not sign up for. I’ll spare you the customer service nightmare element of the story, because when I eventually de-escalated from Yosemite Sam mode about the situation, I actually learned from it. And now that it’s over, I’m kind of, almost glad it happened.
Specifically, once I actually accepted the situation, I decided to embrace it. I didn’t have any truly imminent deadlines, so there was no real reason to bug out to a wifi-enabled coffee shop, or run up our mobile bill by using my phone as a hotspot. So after I did what offline work I could, I re-envisioned my situation as a tiny sabbatical.
I read a bunch of New Yorker short stories I’d set aside. I took a bonus bike ride. I cleaned up my office. It really was refreshing to privilege analog activities.
That Journal article focuses mostly on tactics for the cutting back part of this process, but here’s the bit that resonates with me:
• Replace time spent on social media or screens with other things. That could be anything from real world-socializing, to exercise, to going to bed an hour early. You can even use your phone to call a friend instead of doom scrolling for an hour.
This inches closer to the TAoN ethos: Put less emphasis on what you stop doing, more emphasis on what you do. A bike ride or a phone-free walk isn’t good because you’re not looking at a screen; it’s good because you’re engaged with the world.
But still, that’s not the whole story of my forced mini-detox.
The truth is that the episode also demonstrated to me how thoroughly my regular routines — from the time I get up until I fall asleep — are touched by or even dependent on a digital tether. The speakers in the living room depend on wifi. Our evening entertainment tends to involve streaming. New Yorker aside, a huge amount of my reading is digital. I talk a good game, but on some level I was just marking time before I could get back online! Another 24 hours and I might have turned back into Yosemite Sam.
That’s unnerving. Or maybe it’s obvious? Either way, for me, it was worth facing. A digital detox may be a good exercise, but I don’t think we can simply banish the impact of technology on our attention. Rather than pretending to live without it, we have to find balanced ways to live with it.
Have you tried a digital detox? What did you take from it?
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Noticing is about other people, too. The Icebreaker series aims to help with that. There’s a central collection spot for all the icebreakers to date, here.
Today’s Icebreaker comes from reader Neil:
What was the worst car you ever owned?
Neil gives a little back story on this: “Friend was telling me about his new truck and the minimal amount he got on his trade-in as the car was horrible, including being infested with ants. Immediately thought this would make a good icebreaker.” (Somehow the friend managed to get a $1,000 trade-in value on his ant-infested vehicle.)
Thank you so much, Neil!
Please send your favorite icebreaker (whether you made it up or found it elsewhere) to consumed@robwalker.net.
IN OTHER NEWS
The story of The Moylan Arrow: James Moylan, a Ford engineer, came up with the idea of putting that little arrow on the dashboard display pointing toward the side with the gas tank — an excellent stealth design icon.
The Neighborhoods now has a terrific site collecting short NYC field recordings (kind of along the lines of sound shots) from the project: Check out City of Sound!
Speaking of curbing digital habits: Julia Angwin endorses grayscaling your phone screen. (I tried this for a while several years ago and didn’t find much effect, but your mileage may vary, and Angwin makes me want to try again!)
Art on dirty vans.
“Imagine if The Criterion Channel and Netflix had a baby, but the baby only streamed public-domain classics — and it was completely FREE. That’s WikiFlix.” Sounds cool.
100 Days of Fictional Brands. (A pet subject of mine.)
The case for taking a “fart walk.” (Sorry.)
“Photographing the same scene repeatedly will help you become intimately acquainted with it.” Try different times, angles, conditions.
“We’re more than a quarter way through the new century and we can now ask: what is the aesthetic of the twenty-first century? … We would like to fund some artists who are thinking about this.” Details here
JOE ELY “Live In Concert” Nick’s Uptown Dallas Texas 10-31-81. (Thanks Judi K!)
Here’s my favorite songs of 2025 playlist. Set aside six-and-a-half hours and give it a listen! Shuffle mode is best. (Note: some songs include cussing.)
OKAY THAT’S IT!
As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.
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And thanks for reading …
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Normally I would love this. But it feels like a very convenient time to promote digital detoxing, when social media in 2025 was an enormous tool for activism and community building. News that was being censored was only available through informal channels, we could actively promote and financially support people suffering in Gaza and Sudan, and we started building movements of resistance against capitalism and facism.
Instead of a detox, here's what I recommend:
Be intentional with your content.
The reality is that using social media in the ways mentioned above, is difficult. It means currating your algorithm to content that is constantly depressing and shocking. But that's also the reality we're in, right? What I've found is that being intentional with my content has forced me offline to escape - to my real world hobbies and passions. Instead of relying on my online world to distract me from the hardships of capitalism.
So build the offline habits, but build intentional online ones at the same time.
Detoxing is a privilege right now when many people around the world need us (Westerners) to be watching and learning.
I used to love taking my kids to National Parks because most of them have (or did have) large swaths of the park with no cell service. We also took several "pack trips"on mules into the Eastern Sierra mountains where we would be offline for 3-4 days. Your brain really works differently when there isn't a constant source of distraction in your pocket!