GUEST POST: Can Digital Detox Improve your Learning Abilities?
By Karolina Zając
(Cover image by Vũ Phan from Pixabay)
Karolina Zając is a writer at PhotoAiD. With a background in cognitive science and communication, she is fascinated by how language influences our perception of reality. It’s more likely to find her in the forest than at the dance club.
The world will never be the same since we own digital devices. As a result of the transistor's invention in 1947, technology provides us with computers, smartphones, and internet access, giving us constant connectivity and... stealing our attention. Indeed, the Internet can alter cognitive processes (1), for example, by promoting continuous division of attention - which in turn reduces our ability to maintain concentration on a particular task.
Despite those adverse effects, we tend to spend more and more time on the Internet. According to DataReportal's overview report for 2022, the average global internet user spends almost seven hours on the Internet per day across all devices (2). It's extra 4 minutes per day, equaling more than 5 billion additional days per year if we consider all internet users worldwide.
The studies cited above are only the tip of the iceberg regarding technology's impact on us. I remember the first time I heard about similar findings - it horrified me. As a college student, I wanted to enhance my learning abilities rather than decrease them. I asked myself: what can I do to prevent cognitive decline? That's when I discovered digital detox. Since I gathered some knowledge about the subject and tried it out in my own life, I can say honestly that digital detox is a real opportunity to halt that dopamine-fueled race and regain our minds. So in this article, I'd like to share with you how digital devices can affect your cognitive functions and how you can lead a successful digital break to get your sharp mind back.
Image from Pixabay
A love-hate relationship: how technology affects us
Can digital break improve your academic performance? Can you enhance your analytic thinking skills by putting down your smartphone for some hours? Can just the mobile presence on your desk distract you from your work?
To answer those questions, I would like to explore some research results that shed light on how technology affects certain aspects of our cognition.
Problem-solving: kick your phone out of your room.
Who has never scrolled Instagram in the break at work? We treat it as a leisure activity; however, the reality is quite different. Studies show that checking your phone for a break in a problem-solving task doesn’t allow the brain to recharge, so participants performed slower and less efficiently in the second half of the task (3). Indeed, smartphone-break can make you 19% longer and 22% less effective than other break types.
Unfortunately, we don’t need to check our phones to activate their harmful effect. Even the mere presence of mobile reduces available cognitive capacity, even though participants control themselves not to use them (4). In his experiment, Dr. Adrian Ward proved that students perform worse on the test on solving unfamiliar problems when they kept their phones on the desk, compared to those who kept them in a pocket or backpack. The best results got students whose mobile phones were in other rooms.
We can learn from those findings that checking smartphones between solving math tasks wouldn’t benefit us. Leaving your phone in the kitchen when studying in your room seems to be the best solution.
Analytic, deep, and innovative thinking: free your mind from digital devices
I'm sorry to tell you this, but your inner Einstein will remain hidden as long as you use your phone excessively. In fact, those who rely on their smartphones for information in their everyday lives demonstrate poor analytic thinking abilities when given reasoning problems (6). Simply put, technology functions as our "extended brains," providing us with access to all the information we need. Our minds are lazy and don't force us to develop solutions when we can google them.
According to studies, that effect is associated with searching information, not with the amount of time spent on social media and entertainment. However, overusing any activity by our digital devices doesn't remain neutral on our reasoning skills. It's because of the brain "default mode" system: a group of overlapping networks which fires up during brain wandering. Those DM brains systems are responsible for psychosocial mental processing but also for information processing.
"When the brain has space to roam freely, its default mode is engaged in reliving recent experiences, connecting emotionally relevant information, and constructing narratives that make sense out of life," explains Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, psychologist and neurobiologist (7). She states that the brain's default mode allows for deep thinking and creating brain connections that lead to innovative discoveries. But - we can lose that incredible potential when we overuse digital devices. Smartphones keep us occupied and entertained, preventing our minds from wandering (8). So when we don't let our thoughts flow freely, we sedate our inner Einstein deep inside.
Dopamine fasting: limit your brain’s pleasure
So technology affects mental health and cognitive abilities, but what about the chemistry of our brains?
Let me introduce dopamine, also known as the "feel-good" hormone. Dopamine plays a role in cognition, mood, and memory, too. It's a neurotransmitter released in our brains after every pleasant behavior, such as eating something tasty, exercising, having sex, and interacting with others. You can call it the couch for your brain since it makes you feel good, so you want to repeat the activity again and again.
This small molecule plays a significant role in our lives, and it's also susceptible to the overuse of digital devices (9). We perceive all messages, notifications, and "likes" received from social media as social interactions, so our smartphones are a source of endless social stimulations, resulting in continual dopamine release. An obvious solution seems to be controlling social media usage, but this isn't sufficient. The brain doesn't learn that using just a messaging app releases dopamine; it associates using the mobile phone with feeling good. So each time you use your smartphone, your brain releases dopamine, causing you to want to repeat it again and again. While we are unaware of that mechanism, we can scroll mindlessly for hours because it will please our brains.
Image from Pixabay
Turn off your phone, turn on your mind: digital detox guide
What is a digital detox? The term was coined by founders of Digital Detox company that address the impact of tech dependency with camps, research, and educational programs (10). In Oxford Dictionaries definition, a digital detox is defined as a “period of time during which a person refrains from using their electronic devices, such as smartphones, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world” (11). In other words, it’s time we live without digital devices to rejuvenate and cleanse our minds. Conditions, such as the time and used apps, are various and depend on particular needs and expectations. Because we differ among ourselves, there is no single successful recipe. However, I want to share a few strategies to use as inspiration to find your way.
Know your habits
A successful digital detox should be tailored to your needs. Otherwise, you'll waste your time since you won't resolve your main concerns. To identify your goals, start by observing your daily digital habits. Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself:
What is your favorite time to use digital devices - morning, evening, or lunchtime?
How much time do you spend on digital devices daily?
What places (your bedroom, office, bus) do you most often use digital devices?
Does your use of digital media depend on specific situations? (f.e. checking your phone in stressful social situations to calm yourself down)
Do you enjoy doomscrolling when you're tired?
Which devices are the most time-consuming?
What apps take up the most of your time? Is it worth your time?
It's just a starter pack that you can expand further, but it's enough to identify your essential digital habits. You can also help yourself with tracking apps, such as RescueTime (activity tracker) or Space (screen time tracker).
Choose your time
Here are three digital time management strategies that may inspire you.
The first one is total: the whole day without digital devices. Basically, the idea is to clear your mind by avoiding technology for 24 hours. Depending on your needs and conditions, you can use it as weekly Sunday practice or plan it once a month. From my experience, this is the perfect chance to identify how technology fills our lives because when we avoid it, we realize when we miss it the most. In my opinion, it's a great idea to try it at least once. As a result of my 24-hour detox, I gained free time and a peaceful mind afterward.
Experience of a 24-hour detox gives insight into everyday life but doesn't change it.
Indeed, the study of Peter Frost and colleagues showed that the effect is transitory: the difference in critical thinking between higher and lower users of smartphones disappeared after four weeks (12). That means it may be better to include technology-free time as a daily habit instead of doing it one week once a year. Therefore, consider taking even an hour of a digital break a day. I may be just right after waking up or before going to bed. If you tend to dive into social media when you come back tired from work, maybe the afternoon would be the perfect time for you?
Another idea is to schedule a time when you use your digital devices instead of planning when you skip them. I can't recommend it because I haven't tested it yet; however, it sounds worth trying.
Identify your time-wasters
Let me be clear - digital devices are not entirely wrong. Many practical applications simplify our daily lives or allow us to stay connected with our close ones. Also, sometimes turning off the mobile phone is too much. So instead of cutting off all apps at once, you can just block those which are your time-wasters.
For example, if you scroll Reddit instead of writing an essay, a website blocker (f.e. Freedom) would be helpful. If you watch TikTok instead of learning new words in a foreign language, consider apps like InsightTimer, which block your smartphone. Find out which app makes you the most inefficient and assess the solution.
Plan your alternatives
In the words of Aristotle, Nature abhors a vacuum. Without a plan for your digital break, you run the risk of failure. Your digital detox can become a stressful battle, and you may not want to do it again. Therefore, don't overlook planning alternatives. You can read a book, go for a walk in the forest or try a new recipe. Choose any activity you are passionate about, so you will feel immersed, and you won't even think about your smartphone. At the same time, tidying your room isn't recommended unless you're a clean freak.
Final thoughts
Digital devices are not purely evil things. They are designed to provide information, entertain us, and stay in touch with loved ones despite the distance. Our fast-paced world requires quick answers to our questions. Relationships are important, and no digital detox is worth putting people out of our lives. Therefore, we don’t need to reject the benefits of digital devices.
The point is not to throw your smartphone away and never touch it again.
At the same time, we don’t want to lose our analytic skills, performance, and deep thinking abilities. We want to keep focused, solve problems by ourselves and keep control of our lives.
So the point is to maintain control over digital devices as well.
References
NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University. (2019, June 5). How the Internet may be changing the brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 13, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190605100345.htm
Data Reportal (2022). DIGITAL 2022: GLOBAL OVERVIEW REPORT, from https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-global-overview-report
Kang, S., & Kurtzberg, T. R. (2019). Reach for your cell phone at your own risk: The cognitive costs of media choice for breaks, Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 8(3), 395-403. Retrieved Mar 15, 2022, from https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2006/8/3/article-p395.xml
Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one’s own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140-154.
Barr, N., Pennycook, G., Stolz, J. A., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2015). The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 473-480.
Heid, M. (2017). You Asked: Is My Smartphone Making Me Dumber? Time, retrieved Mar 15, 2022 from https://time.com/4663458/smartphone-brain-dumb/
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Christodoulou, J. A., & Singh, V. (2012). Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(4), 352–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447308
Haynes, T. (2018). Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time. Science in the News at the Harvard Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences.. Retrieved Mar 15, 2022, from https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-time/
Definition of “digital detox”. Oxford University Press. Lexico.com. 15 March 2021. https://www.lexico.com/definition/digital_detox.
Frost, P., Donahue, P., Goeben, K., Connor, M., Cheong, H. S., & Schroeder, A. (2019). An examination of the potential lingering effects of smartphone use on cognition. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33(6), 1055-1067.