Complete guided route
The Digital Detox Experience
See what is happening, plan a break and decide how you want to use technology afterwards.
Start the Experience →All Help & Resources
Everything You Can Use On Digital Detox
Find the course, quiz, Digital Detox Experience, Playbook, books, practical guides, research, meetings and help for parents.
Interactive workbook
The Digital Detox Playbook
Write down what you will stop, what you need to keep and what you will do instead.
Open the Playbook →
Guided audio course
The Complete Free Course
Use the guided sessions to measure your use, plan a detox and set clear rules for the technology you keep.
Start the course →
Book and free sample
Entranced
Read Michael's book about disappearing into screens and finding a way back.
Read Entranced →
Meetings and professional care
Help When You Cannot Stop
Find free meetings, accountability, specialist groups and professional support.
Find help →Choose what you need
Start Here
Start Here
- Get Your Time And Focus Back From Phones And ScreensPractical help to spend less time on phones, screens and online media, protect your sleep and focus, plan a digital detox, and find stronger support when cutting back has not worked.
- What do you need help with?Not sure where to begin? Four doors: it's late and I can't stop, am I addicted, I want to change this, or I'm worried about my child. All free, no signup.
- Who We HelpDigital Detox helps adults who want to use technology less, people who have tried to stop and cannot, worried parents, and people whose online work is taking over their attention.
If You Need Help Now
- It's late and you're still on your phone.A short calm page for the worst part of the night. What's happening in your brain, one thing to do now, and the free meetings running at this hour.
Every Page
- Everything You Can Use On Digital DetoxFind the Digital Detox course, quiz, Playbook, books, guides, meetings, research, parent resources and practical help in one place.
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The Problem
Why Tech Is Addictive
- The Dark Side Of TechHow your phone was engineered to be hard to put down — the attention economy, persuasive design and surveillance, explained in articles, films and free audio.
Featured
- Story: Four kids, Single and Addicted to Facebook...Catherine Latimer describes how loneliness turned Facebook into a constant habit—and the family rules that helped her look up and reconnect.
- Where Are The Flying Cars?Technology was supposed to make us happier and give us more time… what went wrong?
- iPhone: The Dangerous, Jealous Bully & Passionate Attention SeekerA satirical story about the smartphone as a jealous attention seeker, and the notifications, checking and interruptions that give it control of the day.
- Why Can't I Stop Scrolling?Why you can't stop scrolling: infinite scroll was built in a weekend in 2006 and its inventor regrets it. The mechanism, the strongest argument that it is overblown, and what actually holds.
- How Technology Companies Compete For Your AttentionHow notifications, feeds and recommendations compete for attention, how the advertising model pays for it and which parts of the problem are deliberate.
Articles
- Devil's BreathCarlos watches security footage of himself handing his home to strangers. An excerpt from Entranced by Michael Mackintosh.
- InfectedMichael switches the internet back on and notices himself becoming restless, grasping and dissatisfied. An excerpt from Entranced.
- How To Stop Binge-WatchingIf one episode keeps turning into five, use this practical stopping plan—and work out whether the programme is replacing sleep, company or something you do not want to feel.
- Is Technology And Constant Consumption Making Us Happier?Technology promised happiness. Are we actually happier? What honest experience says — and where real joy comes from once the screens go quiet.
- Are We Living Inside A SimulationElon Musk, Silicon Valley and the strange question they take seriously: are we living inside a simulation? And what it means for how you spend your one real life.
- How does social media and entertainment trap us?Six mechanisms that keep social media and online entertainment running: endless feeds, autoplay, social pressure, variable rewards, escape and unfinished stories.
- What You Miss While You Are Looking At A ScreenWhat you are missing while looking at the screen — a short, honest wake-up piece about presence and the real world.
- How Half the Developed World Got HookedAdam Alter on how half the developed world got hooked on the internet — and what irresistible technology is designed to do to the human mind.
- The World of Persuasive Technology with Tristan HarrisWatch Tristan Harris explain persuasive design, the attention economy and the techniques platforms use to keep people checking and coming back.
- Moralizing Technology and the Ethics of ThingsPhilosopher Peter-Paul Verbeek explains how technology shapes human behaviour and why the people who design and use it cannot avoid ethical responsibility.
- The Most Human HumanWhat talking to machines teaches us about being human: Brian Christian's The Most Human Human, and why real conversation matters more than ever.
- Social Media SlaveryModern indentured servants: how big companies get us to work for them for free. Six audio exposés.
Films & Videos
- Videos About Technology, Attention And Digital DetoxMichael's practical videos plus selected films and talks
- The Future, It's Worse Than You Realize: The Dark Side of FacebookThe Future, It's Worse Than You Realize: The Dark Side of Facebook
- This Is Our WorldThis Is Our World: a wordless short film about phones, presence and everything we walk past while looking down.
- Awakened Detox CartoonsThe lighter side of waking up: the Awakened Detox cartoon collection about phones, screens and the strange things we all do now.
- Modern Educayshun - The Dark Side Of Social Media and Political CorrectnessModern Educayshun - The Dark Side Of Social Media and Political Correctness
- Strange BeastsStrange Beasts: a short film about augmented reality that gets under your skin — and the question it leaves you holding.
- You Will Wish You Watched This Before You Started Using Social MediaYou will wish you watched this: the twisted truth about social media, in one unforgettable talk.
- Days Of Freedom — A Short FilmWatch Days of Freedom, Michael Mackintosh's short film about time offline, meditation, friendship and what returns when phones stop filling the day.
- What Happened To The Future?Watch What Happened to the Future?, Michael Mackintosh's film about technology's broken promise, the attention economy and using technology on your own terms.
The Evidence
- Screen Time & Digital Addiction Statistics 2026Every 2026 screen time and phone addiction statistic, with its source and the date it was collected — plus seven widely-quoted numbers that turn out to be wrong.
- A Glossary Of The Attention EconomyAttention economy, variable reward, doomscrolling, phubbing, nomophobia, revenge bedtime procrastination, urge surfing, top and bottom lines — in plain English.
Books & Ebooks
- The Facebook HookThe free ebook on how Facebook gets you hooked — and how to unhook yourself.
- The Digital Minimalist ManifestoFreedom, meaning and mastery in a digitally addicted world. The Digital Minimalist Manifesto by Michael Mackintosh.
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Do a Digital Detox
Do A Digital Detox
- Do A Digital DetoxFive ways to change your relationship with technology: take the quiz, try one day offline, plan a longer break, follow the complete free course, or join a recovery meeting.
Self-Assessment
- How Much Is Too Much?Answer twelve questions about how technology is affecting your sleep, attention, work and relationships, then choose what to do next.
- Am I Addicted To My Phone?Phone addiction is not a formal diagnosis. Use these 12 questions to look at control, consequences and what your phone use is pushing out of your life.
- Signs You May Need a Digital DetoxSee whether screens are harming your sleep, work, relationships or ability to stop—and whether a short digital detox may help.
Short Detoxes
- How I Do a One-Day Digital DetoxA practical one-day digital detox checklist: choose the day, tell people, hand over optional devices, plan what to do instead and decide what to keep afterwards.
- How I Plan a Digital Detox Without Cutting Off What I NeedPlan a digital detox without losing essential access: choose what to pause, prepare work and contacts, move distractions, and decide how to return.
- How To Do An Awesome Digital DetoxThe complete written lesson for your digital detox: preparation, the experience itself, and how to make it genuinely awesome — with every audio session free.
- How To Do A Social Media Detox Without Deleting Your AccountsPlan a social media break that protects contacts, groups, work and archives, avoids switching to another feed, and sets clear rules for returning.
- My 21-Day Digital Detox Ended On Day 12Michael Mackintosh planned 21 days with almost no internet. His diary ended on Day 12. Read the honest record, what failed, and how to plan your own break.
- What Is the Best Length for Your Digital Detox?There is no perfect number of days. Compare a one-day, one-week or two-week digital detox and choose the shortest break that can help you.
- The Benefits Of A Digital DetoxThe benefits of a digital detox, from Michael's experience and two randomized trials—plus what a short break cannot promise and how to try one.
- The Digital Detox PlaybookA practical workbook for planning a digital detox around the technology you want to change and the access you still need.
The Full Course
- The Complete Digital Detox CourseThe complete free digital detox course: ten benefits, four parts, forty guided audio sessions and the inner work that makes it last. Normally $297 — yours free, no signup.
- The Wake Up CallSee what's really going on: six wake-up talks, three films and the six original lessons. Part 1 of the free course.
- The Reality CheckYour pre-detox self assessment: two missions, the worksheet and the honest quiz. Part 2 of the free course.
- The DetoxThe program itself, normally $297, free: twenty guided audio sessions plus the written guides. Part 3 of the free course.
- The Inner GameEleven sessions to rewrite the story underneath, including the full story work. Part 4 of the free course.
- The Digital Detox ExperienceSee how digital media is affecting your life, plan a temporary digital detox and decide what should return and what rules it needs.
Groups & Meetings
- Free Twelve-Step Help for Media and Internet AddictionWhat MAA and ITAA are, what a meeting is actually like, and how to join one today. Free, anonymous, every day.
- My Technology Use Feels Out Of ControlFree daily meetings, twelve-step fellowships, clinical treatment and family resources for phone and internet addiction, with clear explanations of each option.
- How To Stop Watching Porn When You Feel StuckA practical 24-hour plan for pornography use that feels hard to control, plus confidential meetings and professional treatment options.
Why It Is Free
- Why This Is FreeMichael sold the complete course for $297 for years. It is now free, with no signup or email list. Personal coaching remains paid.
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Solutions
Spend Less Time Online
- Spend Less Time OnlinePractical ways to make technology less intrusive, rebuild attention, sleep better and find the right help when the pattern is difficult to change.
Support & Accountability
- How an Accountability Partner Helped Me Change My Internet HabitsI kept going back to YouTube and the news after app blockers, lock boxes and private promises. This is the five-minute accountability system that helped me change.
Misadventures And Experiments
- The Misadventures of a Digital MinimalistMichael Mackintosh spent five days working nearly 15 hours a day with AI while rebuilding a digital-detox website. His honest account of the contradiction and how he plans to come back.
Your Phone
- How I Made My Phone Less DistractingSeven free changes that make a phone less distracting, with current iPhone and Android instructions and Michael Mackintosh's original four-phone experiment.
- App Blockers And Browser Extensions That Actually WorkEleven app blockers and six browser extensions reviewed independently, including two that are free and open source. No affiliate links and no sponsorship.
- Dumb Phones, Minimal Phones And Things That Are Not ScreensEight minimal phones with what each one will not do, five friction devices including Brick and time-lock boxes, and eight objects that replace a reason to pick the phone up.
- How To Stop Checking Your Phone First Thing In The MorningA practical phone-free morning plan: move the phone out of the bedroom, choose your first check and test the change for seven days.
- Why I Ditched My Cell Phone Twice — And Reclaimed My LifeMichael Mackintosh threw one phone into a lake and disconnected another. His first-person account of trying to live and run a business without constant mobile access.
- Brick Review: The Physical Phone Blocker That Finally Worked For MeAn independent Brick review after months of real use: how the physical phone blocker works, Brick vs K-Safe, its limits and Michael's 9/10 verdict.
- K-Safe Review: How I Lock My Phone Away Until MorningMichael's K-Safe review after years of use: his phone-free nights, the box-under-rocks story, K-Safe vs Brick and the no-override risk.
What To Do Instead
- Meditation: Learning To Be Where You Actually AreThe phone is often an anaesthetic for restlessness. Meditation trains the gap between the feeling and the reach — how to start in ten minutes, plus every genuinely free resource.
Scrolling
- How To Stop Doomscrolling At NightA direct plan for stopping repeated negative-news scrolling: choose the source and end point before opening, remove the feed and move the phone.
- Dopamine Detox: What's Real, What's Hype, What WorksThe honest version of the dopamine detox: what the trend gets wrong, what the science supports, and the version that actually changes your relationship with your phone.
- Navigating Digital MindfulnessNavigating digital mindfulness: how to use technology consciously without letting it quietly use you.
Attention & Focus
- The BoxI grab the locked metal box and hurry up the path through the scrub, past the cactus and dry grass until I see the old tree.
- Learning to Look Up Again: Controlling your smartphone addictionRoss Sleight examines how compulsive smartphone use displaces real conversation, then asks what it takes to look up and reconnect with the people around you.
- How People Realise They Have A Phone ProblemStart here: the wake up call. Seeing clearly what technology is doing to your attention, your relationships and your one wild life.
- The ChoiceTwo paths, one decision: the choice between digital servitude and a life you actually chose — laid out honestly, without preaching.
Online Work And Messages
- Use Technology For Work Without Letting It Take OverPractical help for people who need email, social media and AI to do their work but want to concentrate, finish and stop when the working day ends.
- How To Focus At Work When The Internet Keeps Distracting YouA practical method for protecting focused work from messages, feeds and browser checks—with the workplace research and its limits.
- How I Use Social Media for Work Without Letting It Take OverDecide the job before you open social media. Do the job, answer what matters and leave before the feed takes over.
- How To Use AI Without Letting It Take Over Your WorkdayAI can make a task faster and still leave us working longer. Use clear finish lines, bounded AI sessions and Michael's 90/30 rhythm to keep the saved time.
- 7 Human Skills AI Can't ReplaceMichael Mackintosh's practical guide to wisdom, purpose, human connection, inner wellbeing, taste, intuition and empathy in the age of AI.
- Why Unfinished Messages Stay in Your HeadWhy unanswered messages and unfinished online tasks return to mind, what research supports, and how to close the loop without constant checking.
Understand Media Addiction And Digital Minimalism
- What Is Media Addiction?“Media addiction” is not one formal diagnosis. Learn which signs matter, how heavy use differs from loss of control, and where to find help.
- What Is Digital Minimalism? A Beginner's GuideKeep the technology that helps you. Remove or limit the parts that waste your time, break your focus or keep taking over.
- How Screen Time Affects Sleep And What To Do TonightWhat research says about phones, blue light and sleep, with two practical changes to try tonight and clear limits on what the evidence proves.
Everything Worth Reading, Watching & Hearing
- The LibraryEverything good on this subject, mostly by other people: 21 books including the one that argues the other way, six films, ten talks, five podcasts, six citable studies and where to find people. No affiliate links.
Books, Podcasts & Links
- The Best Books On Attention, Phones And Getting FreeThe definitive reading list — Haidt's The Anxious Generation, Newport, Hari, Lembke, Postman, Odell and more, grouped by what you actually need. No affiliate links.
- Key Insights From ‘Stolen Focus’Johann Hari argues your attention was taken, not lost — twelve causes, only some of them screens. What the book gets right, and the objection from psychologist Stuart Ritchie that most summaries leave out.
- The Best Podcasts On Attention, Phones And RecoveryWhich shows are genuinely worth your time, which have quietly stopped publishing, and seven individual episodes to go straight to.
- Books for Digital DetoxMichael's recommended reading for breaking free from digital addiction — the books that expose the attention economy and the ones that rebuild a real life.
- What Do You Need Help With Right Now?Choose practical, evidence-based help for scrolling, screen habits, digital wellbeing, digital minimalism, parenting and serious compulsive use.
- Articles About Screens And Attention From Around The WebThe wider library — research, articles, talks and tools on technology addiction, attention and getting your life back.
- The Resource ShelfThe free reference shelf: 2026 statistics with sources, the research in plain English, 42 tools reviewed independently, books, podcasts and where to get help.
Does A Digital Detox Work?
- Does A Digital Detox Actually Work?Nine major studies and evidence reviews on cutting screen time, in plain English — including null results, limits and questions the research cannot answer.
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For Parents
For Parents
- Help With Your Child’s Screen UseEight guides for parents: my child cannot stop, how much screen time by age, when to give a first phone, sextortion, AI companions, how to talk to them, the evidence, and the best resources.
If It Is Already A Problem
- My Child Cannot StopHow to tell heavy screen use from real compulsion in a child, the five things to do this week, and the free daily meetings and clinical options if it has gone further than that.
- SextortionMore than 50,000 reports in 2025 and at least three dozen boys dead. The warning signs, the one sentence to say in advance, and exactly what to do if it is happening now.
The Decisions
- How Much Screen Time, By AgeAge by age: what the guidance says, the main risk at each stage, how much sleep children need, and what screens push out. Under 2, 2-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15 and 16-18.
- When Should I Give My Child A Phone?What the ownership figures really show, what Wait Until 8th and Smartphone Free Childhood recommend, and the smartwatches and kid-safe phones that reach your child without giving them a feed.
- My Child Is Talking To An AI86% of children aged 9 to 17 use AI and 11% say it understands them better than most people. What AI companions are, what has already gone wrong, and where this site stands.
Talking To Them
- How To Talk To Your Child About ScreensWhy confiscation teaches concealment, the sentence that puts you on the same side of the problem, and the two things worth saying in advance.
Stories
- Pleasure IslandA story about the island where the boys were given everything they wanted, and what happened to them there. Fiction, from Entranced by Michael Mackintosh.
- The Children Who Went To MarsFourteen months on the colony, and the children came back changed — spaced out, unable to concentrate, unable to meet your eye. No screens were involved. Fiction, from Entranced.
The Evidence
- Worried About Your Child's Screen Use?Worried about your child's phone, gaming, social media or AI use? See what to do this week, which warning signs matter and what the evidence can and cannot tell us.
- What kind of future are we creating for our kids?What Denmark's forest kindergartens reveal about risk, outdoor play, independence and the kind of childhood that screen time can quietly displace.
Resources
- The Best Resources For ParentsThe organisations worth knowing and what each is actually for, the books, films to watch together, what to ask your child's school for, and where to get help.
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The Book
The Book
- EntrancedRead the complete Version 1 author review copy of Entranced by Michael Mackintosh, plus a free 53-page sample about disappearing into screens and finding a way back.
- Entranced: Read Part I FreePart I: The Dive. Devil's Breath, The Box, Two Paths, Friday Night, The Lake.
Coaching
- You Don't Have To Do This AloneOne-to-one coaching with Michael Mackintosh for people who want a clearer, more deliberate relationship with phones, media and online work.
Choose what you need
About
About
- Michael MackintoshMichael Mackintosh is an author, meditation teacher, entrepreneur and mentor. Explore his books, meditations, training, companies and private mentoring.
- PrivacyThe privacy policy for digitaldetox.io: no advertising or analytics trackers, no accounts and no forms.
Free Downloads
Download the books, workbooks and printable lists directly.
- 300 Things To Do Instead Of Using MediaPDF · 105 KB
- 365 Things To Do Instead Of Checking Your PhonePDF · 85 KB
- Digital Detox PlaybookPDF · 492 KB
- Entranced — Author Review CopyPDF · 791 KB
- Entranced — Free SamplePDF · 302 KB