For three weeks, thousands of children in Europe were left without social networks or smartphones, or without both. Their digital detox journal shows how they experienced this absence.
All children today were born after the appearance of the smartphone and social networks. How many could function without a phone or a TikTok account?
This is the question that 72,000 children from five European countries recently tried to answer. They chose to limit their access to the digital world, replacing Instagram and iPhones with paper agendas, as reported by Washington Post.
In some countries, governments are calling for bans on social networks. Some schools have banned phones in classrooms, with mixed results. This project, led by independent experts from Austria, was something different, proposing a voluntary digital detox.
Rules of the Experiment
For three weeks in March, some participants completely gave up their phones.
Some switched to "dumbphones" - mobile phones without Internet access. Some kept their smartphones but reduced their daily screen time from hours to a few minutes.
Others only gave up social networks.
14 participants from Austria, aged between 10 and 17, shared how they felt, with the American daily creating a journal of the experiment.
The children talked about a transformed world, one in which they felt more connected to their environment and closer to their loved ones. Others said they felt bored and lonely, unable to contact distant relatives.
Here's how it went:
Day 1: Phones Off
Moritz Voltmer (14 years old) completely gave up his phone: "There was an important event at school where we turned off our phones at the same time. I remember not being impressed, like - 21 days will be easy."
Özlem Koza (11 years old) aimed to limit her daily phone use to one hour: "The first day was the hardest. I didn't want to go home because I knew I would want to use my phone. At home, I often thought about the phone."
Days 2-4: Acclimatization
Salome Slouk (16 years old) used a landline phone instead of a smartphone: "When I'm on the phone, I don't have to think. I just scroll and then I don't remember what I saw. When I didn't have my phone with me, I couldn't stop my thoughts. They overwhelmed me."
Johanna Spring (17 years old) kept her smartphone but stopped using social networks: "In one corner of the house is my cello. I took it and started playing. It's fun not to have a phone and just try different things."
Days 5-7: Building Connections
Niki Sumper (16 years old) limited her smartphone use to 10 minutes a day: "I played chess with dad and some board games with mom and dad. I spent the whole evening like that. Normally, I stay in my room and listen to music, play on PlayStation, but mostly I'm with the phone."
Johanna: "If you scroll on TikTok, there are always emotional changes. You can easily get depressed. If you don't have that at all, you seek connections with people. I think I listened more. When I talk to mom, if we disagree, one of us will stop the other. I tried to listen to what she was saying. We had a much nicer connection."
Days 7-11: Thinking Better
Niki: "Normally, I write 10 sentences, then take a break, look at the phone, then write the next paragraph. I forget what I wrote before and sometimes repeat the same phrases or write something inappropriate. But now I wrote without breaks."
Moritz: "I studied for a Spanish test. Normally, when I study, I take short breaks to send some messages on Snaps or something like that. But as the challenge progressed, I learned to focus more. I knew no one would call me, send me messages, and that gave me a little boost."
Days 12-14: Feeling Lonely
Niki: "The hardest part of the project was not communicating with friends. In the early days, it was okay, but halfway through it became difficult. My best friend lives nearby, so I asked him to take care of everything so we could meet with other friends. It felt a bit embarrassing to go to my friend and say, 'Call all my other friends and tell them to meet here then'."
Özlem: "At home, I noticed that mom, my brother, dad, were always on the phone, and I was the only one in the house without a phone. I was very irritated. I told them many times not to do that, but they didn't listen to me."
Salome: "I spend a lot of time on WhatsApp and send messages with my boyfriend. I feel like I have to send short messages, like: 'What are you doing?'. But (during the project) I knew I couldn't do it, so it wasn't necessary."
Days 16-17: Finding Solutions
Moritz: "I got a mobile phone. It has some buttons, and you have to press them about three times to get the correct letter. It was very inconvenient."
Niki: "I wanted to visit a good friend in another city, about 30-40 minutes away by car. I decided to go by bike. I got on the laptop, searched on Google for the distance and route, and printed them. It took me about an hour and 20 minutes. I cycled through areas in Lower Austria that I had never seen before. It was very nice to see animals like groundhogs, squirrels, owls, horses, deer, a fox."
Salome: "I went to Vienna with my mom to buy something, and then she stayed there, but I had to go back home. I looked at her phone and had to memorize the names of the train stations. I was a little scared, but I made it home safely."
Day 22: Back to Phones
Moritz: "We had an important event at school to turn on our phones together. I had a great time during the challenge and was afraid I would use my phone too much again."
Salome: "Do I really want to give up the dumbphone and get a real phone again? I didn't really want to."
Johanna: "I had over 70 messages on Snapchat, so I put it down immediately. I didn't want to look."
Niki: "I checked my messages and then checked what I missed on Instagram and TikTok. There wasn't much."
Day 25: What They Learned
Johanna: "I'm trying to limit the time I spend on the phone in general and use it more consciously. Now I always have a book in my bag, which I only read when I'm on public transport, instead of scrolling the net."
Özlem: "I love my phone very, very much, but I use it less, one or two hours a day. I draw, study, help mom, or go outside."
Salome: "I waited to change the SIM card until Saturday morning. I just wanted to keep that feeling of being available only when someone calls me. I still haven't opened TikTok, and I don't miss it."
T.D.