{"id":746,"date":"2021-01-08T11:03:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/?p=746"},"modified":"2021-01-08T11:03:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:03:30","slug":"digital-detoxes-are-a-solution-looking-for-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2021\/01\/08\/digital-detoxes-are-a-solution-looking-for-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital detoxes are a solution looking for a problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

January is \u201cDebating Digital Detox\u201d month on the Business and Society blog. An increasing number of people are choosing to give up their electronic devices in January, as a type of new year's resolution. We are exploring why people feel the need to do this, and why we see our relationship with digital technology so negatively. Are we so addicted that we need a period to \u2018cleanse\u2019 ourselves?<\/em><\/p>\n

David Ellis<\/a> and Brit Davidson<\/a> address this question directly. They draw on their body of research to explain that there is little evidence for the benefits of giving up your devices, and that doing so might actually have negative consequences. This article was previously published in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

With New Year\u2019s resolutions in full swing, many people may have chosen to cut down on their tech use \u2013 or even give it up altogether. The\u00a0growing popularity of such \u201cdigital detoxes\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is encouraged by a slew of\u00a0negative findings<\/a>\u00a0about the effects of technology use, alongside claims that such action can help reduce stress and help people\u00a0become more \u201cpresent\u201d and compassionate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But frequent use of technology and social media isn\u2019t a problem in itself. Despite reported claims, there\u2019s currently little scientific evidence that digital detoxes have any benefits. In fact, giving up your devices completely could have its own unintended negative consequences.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons that digital detoxes seem good for us is the misconception that technology is inherently harmful. There are numerous studies that link\u00a0excessive technology use<\/a>\u00a0with poorer sleep, increased depressive symptoms, and higher levels of anxiety.<\/p>\n

But while studies ask participants questions about how much they use technology and how depressed or anxious they are, they are unable to explain the direction of any effect. Essentially, we cannot tell if they use social media because they are depressed, or they are depressed because they use social media. And, of course, many other factors might explain why a person feels depressed or anxious.<\/p>\n

Most studies also rely on self-reported estimates of technology use, which often\u00a0don\u2019t reflect reality<\/a>. Studies that rely on people self-reporting\u00a0may get inaccurate information<\/a>. Interestingly, when time in front of a screen is measured automatically by an application or device, depression and anxiety severity\u00a0aren\u2019t associated<\/a>\u00a0with total smartphone usage.<\/p>\n

Research often tends to treat all technology use as equal. This assumption overlooks the fact that we have a different experience with each kind of technology we use. For example, mindlessly scrolling Instagram is very different to chatting on WhatsApp, or using a\u00a0fitness tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), the UK body representing doctors who specialise in children,\u00a0recently argued<\/a>\u00a0that screen time is not \u201ctoxic\u201d to health and that the evidence for harm is overstated. But\u00a0negative findings<\/a>\u00a0continue to have a greater influence on public opinion as they appear more frequently in the popular press. This can sometimes lead to a vicious cycle where research\u00a0responds directly to \u201choax\u201d<\/a>\u00a0media claims. The results then generate even\u00a0more alarming headlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there\u2019s little evidence that digital detoxes actually have any benefit. The majority of what exists is\u00a0based on anecdotes<\/a>\u00a0rather than scientific studies. Some arguments might seem sensible, such as that giving up technology may encourage people to be more\u00a0physically active<\/a>. But again, no research has demonstrated that this is actually true.<\/p>\n

Giving up technology also means giving up the good things about it. For example, smartphones and social media help people communicate and socialise, which is known to\u00a0increase happiness<\/a>. So it\u2019s not surprising that some studies have found complete withdrawal from social media can have adverse consequences such as\u00a0lower satisfaction<\/a>,\u00a0boredom, feelings of social pressure,<\/a>\u00a0and fear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While giving up a digital existence for a short time may let people reconnect with other aspects of their lives, this is often a temporary state that is impossible to maintain. Most people will simply\u00a0return to prior habits<\/a>\u00a0that have become an essential part of everyday life.<\/p>\n

Age-old concerns<\/h2>\n

People have always been concerned about almost every\u00a0mass-adopted technology invented<\/a>, and social media and smartphones are no different. But the idea that screen-based technologies are harming society continues to be a source of considerable debate surrounded by\u00a0questionable evidence and media hype<\/a>. As more research is completed, it\u2019s important that findings are\u00a0presented carefully<\/a>\u00a0to prevent further misinterpretation and fear-mongering.<\/p>\n

When it comes to digital detoxes, there is unlikely to be anything seriously wrong with stepping away from technology for the majority of people. But the notion that they\u2019re a \u201cgood idea\u201d, or that they have any lasting effects, is yet to be supported by science. In fact, seeing as there\u2019s little evidence to suggest that technology is inherently bad, it might be that digital detoxes have no problem to solve in the first place.<\/p>\n

While the evidence we do have is patchy from decades of bad practice, the truth is slowly emerging with improved methods. This is starting to suggest that technology use is not harmful in itself. As\u00a0politicians consider<\/a>\u00a0the impact, they should be mindful of these developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January is \u201cDebating Digital Detox\u201d month on the Business and Society blog. An increasing number of people are choosing to give up their electronic devices in January, as a type of new year's resolution. We are exploring why people feel...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1361,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[107,66,25,129],"tags":[117,49,114,47],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","category-research","category-technology","category-wellbeing","tag-digital","tag-research","tag-technology","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2021\/01\/bastian-riccardi-1CJBxNOwIMc-unsplash-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4Pj1-c2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}