Have you ever turned around and gone back home because you realized you’d left your phone behind? Is it the last thing you look at before falling asleep and the first thing you check in the morning? Do you unlock it for “just a minute,” only to realize ten have somehow disappeared, or find yourself watching a raccoon steal cat food in Nebraska?
If you answered yes to any of those questions: congratulations, you might need a digital detox.
A digital detox is simply a set break from phones, computers, tablets, and other screens. The goal isn’t to swear off technology forever or move to a cabin in the woods, but to let your mind slow down, reduce stress, and reconnect with the world beyond your notifications.
We live in a digital world. Work, entertainment, news, directions, shopping, even settling an argument about when England last won a World Cup, usually involves a screen. We’re never more than a tap away from almost anything, and we’ve become so used to that that being unreachable for an hour can feel… unnatural.
Take a look around the next time you’re waiting for the train, standing in line for coffee, or sitting in a doctor’s office. Hardly anyone is just… waiting anymore. We instinctively reach for our phones to fill every quiet moment. Long gone is the sweet concept of the dolce far niente, the “sweetness of doing nothing.”
We even experience life through our cameras. We queue up to photograph a beautiful view instead of simply looking at it; at concerts, we’re surrounded by a sea of glowing screens recording the same song we’ll probably never watch again.
Granted, working in data privacy means we probably notice these things more than most people. Where everyone else sees a fun new app, we see permissions, cookies, privacy policies nobody has ever read, and enough targeted ads to make us wonder who we’ve been talking about lately.
Years of working in privacy will do that to you; but this isn’t just about privacy. Constant notifications, endless scrolling, and feeling like we have to be available all the time can be exhausting. Technology has made our lives easier in countless ways, but it’s also become very good at demanding our attention. We still love technology; we just think it’s healthy to remember that we’re supposed to be using it, not the other way around.
So that's exactly what we're doing. Our team is taking a digital detox during August. Some of us are reconnecting with nature, soaking up sunshine, traveling across the country, or willingly running races with far more hills than any reasonable person would choose. The point isn’t where we’re going, but what we’re leaving behind for a little while.
One of us has even picked up a Bloom Card, a pocket-sized stainless steel keycard with an NFC chip that locks and unlocks distracting apps and websites when you tap it to your phone. Leave the card at home, and social media stays locked. It sounds almost too simple, but sometimes a bit of friction is all it takes to stop opening an app without even realizing why.
If taking a break sounds appealing but you’re not sure where to start, here are a few suggestions:
- Be realistic and start small. Not everyone can disappear offline for a month, and that’s okay. Pick a time each day when you deliberately unplug, maybe fifteen phone‑free minutes today, thirty tomorrow.
- Turn off notifications. Every app thinks it’s the most important thing in your life. Turning off nonessential alerts lets you check your phone when you choose, instead of when it tells you to.
- Delete what doesn’t serve you. Some apps genuinely make life easier; others just steal time and leave you feeling worse. If an app consistently stresses you out, delete it, you can always reinstall it later.
- Create a little distance. Going for a walk, grabbing coffee, or spending time with family? Ask whether you really need your phone. If leaving it at home feels too ambitious, bury it in your bag instead of keeping it in your hand.
- Don’t wake up to your phone. Try an old‑fashioned alarm clock, or let your smartwatch wake you with a gentle buzz. Give yourself half an hour before checking email or social media.
- Plan tech‑free activities. Go for a hike; ride a bike; read a book; meet a friend for lunch and keep your phones off the table. People are still pretty interesting when they’re not staring at a screen.
Even a modest digital detox can have real benefits. Spending less time on screens has been linked to better sleep, lower stress, improved focus, and fewer feelings of anxiety or loneliness. From a privacy perspective, it also means sharing less data and giving fewer algorithms something new to learn about you.
Will a digital detox solve all your problems? Probably not. Will your inbox still be there tomorrow? Unfortunately, yes.
But sometimes the best thing you can do for both your mind and your privacy is simply put your phone down.
We’ll be putting our own advice into practice throughout August. If you decide to join us, we’d love to hear how it went, whether you loved it, hated it, or made it exactly seventeen minutes before instinctively reaching for your phone again. No judgment.
Drop us a message at sparcs@umd.edu, and we’ll compare notes when we’re back in September.
Until then, enjoy your vacation, enjoy the sunshine, and don’t forget to look up every once in a while. That beautiful view doesn’t need to end up in your camera roll to be worth remembering.
Happy detoxing!
