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.

Complete guided route

The Digital Detox Experience

See what is happening, plan a break and decide how you want to use technology afterwards.

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Interactive workbook

The Digital Detox Playbook

Write down what you will stop, what you need to keep and what you will do instead.

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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.

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Book and free sample

Entranced

Read Michael's book about disappearing into screens and finding a way back.

Read Entranced →

People sitting together while using their phones

Meetings and professional care

Help When You Cannot Stop

Find free meetings, accountability, specialist groups and professional support.

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Start Here

Get Your Time And Focus Back From Phones And Screens Practical help to spend less time on phones, screens and online media, protect your sleep and focus, and plan a digital detox that fits real life.
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 Help Digital 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 Detox Find the Digital Detox course, quiz, Playbook, books, guides, meetings, research, parent resources and practical help in one place.

The Problem

Why Tech Is Addictive

The Dark Side Of Tech How 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 Seeker A 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 Attention How notifications, feeds and recommendations compete for attention, how the advertising model pays for it and which parts of the problem are deliberate.

Articles

Can a Photograph Steal Your Experience? Michael photographed a Botswana safari, then realised he had only really seen Africa in the slides. Try one photo boundary without giving up photographs.
Devil's Breath Carlos watches security footage of himself handing his home to strangers. An excerpt from Entranced by Michael Mackintosh.
Infected Michael switches the internet back on and notices himself becoming restless, grasping and dissatisfied. An excerpt from Entranced.
How To Stop Binge-Watching If 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 Simulation Elon 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.
Social Media Slavery Modern indentured servants: how big companies get us to work for them for free. Six audio exposés.

Films & Videos

Videos About Technology, Attention And Digital Detox Michael's practical videos plus selected films and talks
The Dark Side of Facebook: Addiction, Privacy and Mental Health Documented privacy failures, mental-health evidence, Meta’s teen settlement and practical ways to use Facebook with a clear end.
Awakened Detox Cartoons The lighter side of waking up: the Awakened Detox cartoon collection about phones, screens and the strange things we all do now.
Days Of Freedom — A Short Film Watch 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 2026 Every 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 Economy Attention economy, variable reward, doomscrolling, phubbing, nomophobia, revenge bedtime procrastination, urge surfing, top and bottom lines — in plain English.

Books & Ebooks

The Facebook Hook The free ebook on how Facebook gets you hooked — and how to unhook yourself.
The Digital Minimalist Manifesto Freedom, meaning and mastery in a digitally addicted world. The Digital Minimalist Manifesto by Michael Mackintosh.

Do a Digital Detox

Do A Digital Detox

Do A Digital Detox Five 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 Detox See 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 Detox A 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 Need Plan 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 A Social Media Detox Without Deleting Your Accounts Plan 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 12 Michael 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 Detox The 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 Playbook A 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 Course The complete free digital detox course: ten benefits, four parts, forty guided audio sessions and the inner work that makes it last. Free, with no signup.
The Wake Up Call See what's really going on: six wake-up talks, three films and the six original lessons. Part 1 of the free course.
The Reality Check Your pre-detox self assessment: two missions, the worksheet and the honest quiz. Part 2 of the free course.
The Detox The program itself, free: twenty guided audio sessions plus the written guides. Part 3 of the free course.
The Inner Game Eleven sessions to rewrite the story underneath, including the full story work. Part 4 of the free course.
The Digital Detox Experience See 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 Addiction What 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 Control Free 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 Stuck A 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 Free Michael used to sell the complete course. It is now free, with no signup or email list. Personal coaching remains paid.

Solutions

Spend Less Time Online

Spend Less Time Online Practical 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 Habits I 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 Minimalist Michael 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.

Michael's Digital Detox Journal

Michael's Digital Detox Journal True personal stories about checking, bargaining, relapsing, getting outside, asking for help and trying again.
The Instagram Science Project Michael opened Instagram for research, bought three courses and felt off balance before he had published a single post.
Two People in My Head One part of Michael wants order, purpose and peace. Another urgently needs sumac powder, tungsten spheres and one quick look at YouTube.
The Checking Binge After five hours moving between email, Facebook, messages, reviews and a film, Michael still could not say what he had been looking for.
The Fridge Michael's fridge was full of food he had deliberately bought. In the state he was in, none of it counted because none of it was ready now.
Wes Anderson Doesn't Count During a media fast, Michael constructed an impeccable argument for one respectable film. By the credits, he wanted Mission: Impossible and had checked his messages.
The Awkward Dance A forgotten Amazon box on the deck quietly turned into logins, labels, a drive, small talk and another chance to buy things.
Fundamentally Dissatisfying After sixteen hours offline, Michael picked up the phone he had hidden in a drawer and saw the familiar icons without their usual promise.
Getting Away and the Switch Away with a tent, hammocks and no Wi-Fi, Michael barely cared about technology. Back at the desk, one quick check regained its power.
I Don't Trust Myself Online Clear-headed after a day offline, Michael admits that good intentions are not enough when the browser is open and the old sequence can begin.
Twenty Per Cent Slower Michael keeps noticing the same pressure beneath his days: faster, finish it, urgent. His proposed cure is embarrassingly small and difficult.
The Final Straw At the top of a mountain, Michael finally admits that private promises and increasingly elaborate lockbox plans are not enough. He looks for other people.
Cathedral Rock Nearly a month into a media fast, Michael follows the creek beneath Cathedral Rock and finds the experience he had spent years trying to protect.

Choose Technology Deliberately

Four Questions Before You Adopt New Technology Before you buy a device or install an app, ask whose problem the tool solves, what new cost it creates and whether a simpler answer would work.

Manage Feelings Without Escaping Online

Feel your feelings instead of escaping them Feel Your Feelings is a free web app that helps you notice an emotion, allow it to be present and use a guided practice to let it go.

Your Phone

How I Made My Phone Less Distracting Seven 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 Work Eleven app blockers and six browser extensions reviewed independently, including two that are free and open source. No affiliate links and no sponsorship.
Best Dumb Phones and Phones Without Apps (2026) Compare strict phones, child-friendly first phones and physical blockers by missing features, price, carrier limits and the needs they still cover.
How To Stop Checking Your Phone First Thing In The Morning A 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 Life Michael 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 Me An 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.
KSafe Review (2026): Does the Timed Lock Box Work? Michael’s unsponsored review after years of use, including his phone-free nights, the no-override risk and KSafe versus Brick.

What To Do Instead

The Joy Of Indian Mangoes Taste seven Indian mango varieties, run a phone-free mango tasting and plan a mango-season trip to India around the fruit you want to try.
Meditation: Learning To Be Where You Actually Are The 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 Night A 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 Works The 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 Mindfulness Navigating digital mindfulness: how to use technology consciously without letting it quietly use you.

Attention & Focus

The Box I 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.
How People Realise They Have A Phone Problem Start here: the wake up call. Seeing clearly what technology is doing to your attention, your relationships and your one wild life.
The Choice Two 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 Over Practical 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 You A 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 Over Decide the job before you open social media. Do the job, answer what matters and leave before the feed takes over.
Why Unfinished Messages Stay in Your Head Why 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 Guide Keep 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 Tonight What 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 Library Everything 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 Free The 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 Recovery Which shows are genuinely worth your time, which have quietly stopped publishing, and seven individual episodes to go straight to.
Books for Digital Detox Michael'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 Web The wider library — research, articles, talks and tools on technology addiction, attention and getting your life back.
The Resource Shelf The 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.

AI Sanity

Start Here

How Do You Manage AI Without Losing Your Mind? Practical help for using AI without surrendering your attention, judgement, wellbeing or stopping point.

For Organizations

AI Sanity at Work: Recover the Capacity AI Was Supposed to Save Programs, transparent prices and an ROI calculator for organizations losing paid capacity to AI cost, task switching, rework and digital overload.

Personal Experience

AI Is the New Addiction Michael Mackintosh's first-person account of how a $20 AI plan escalated into multiple accounts, four-figure credit days and nonstop work that never felt finished.

Practical Guides

How to Brief AI So You Get Better Results A practical, tool-neutral brief for defining the outcome, audience, sources, format and finish line before the first prompt.
The AI Sanity System A practical operating system for getting better AI outputs without losing your mind, judgement or entire working day.
How To Use AI Without Letting It Take Over Your Workday AI can make a task faster and still leave you working longer. Use clear finish lines, bounded sessions and planned breaks to keep the saved time.

The Human Advantage Course

Reclaim Your Body From the Algorithm A grounding practice for returning to your body before AI, feeds or notifications choose your next move.
Emotional Wisdom in the Age of AI Feel and examine emotion without automatically escaping into a phone, feed or AI-generated answer.
Choose Compassion Over Digital Performance Move beyond profiles, metrics and AI-generated warmth to the attention and accountability of real human connection.
Make Technology Your Tool Again Five practical ways to use AI, social media and online advice without handing them your judgement or stopping point.

Stay Human

7 Human Skills Worth Protecting in the Age of AI Seven practical ways to protect your judgement, purpose, relationships, wellbeing, taste, intuition and empathy while using AI.

For Parents

Meta’s $18 Billion Teen Settlement: Facebook and Instagram Rules The two-hour limit, midnight block, parent controls, start date and what the settlement does not fix.
Help With Your Child’s Screen Use Eight 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.
Practical Technology Advice for Parents Michael's candid recommendation for parents setting boundaries around phones, screens and their own example at home.

If It Is Already A Problem

My Child Cannot Stop How 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.
Sextortion More 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

Screen Time Limits by Age: Average vs Recommended (2026) Observed averages, pediatric guidance, sleep needs and practical family rules from under 2 to 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 AI How to tell ordinary AI use from an AI companion relationship, which warning signs matter and how to talk with your child about it.

Talking To Them

How To Talk To Your Child About Screens Why 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 Island A 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 Mars Fourteen 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 Parents The 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.

The Book

Entranced Read 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 Free Part I: The Dive. Devil's Breath, The Box, Two Paths, Friday Night, The Lake.

Scenes From Entranced

Scenes From Entranced Choose a scene from Entranced by Michael Mackintosh.
Before I Even Posted Anything Michael downloads Instagram as a science project, buys three courses and still has not posted anything.
Best Friends Adults and children meet after a long separation, but work calls, phones and a Nintendo Switch keep taking over the visit.
The Shed A woman unplugs the router for a moment and discovers how much the household depends on it.
The Tic A sourced account of sudden tic-like behaviours spreading through social media, with the uncertainty left in.
Consent A dark scene about impaired choice and persuasive technology.
MKULTRA 2.0 A sourced historical scene about attempts to control the human mind.

Coaching

You Don't Have To Do This Alone One-to-one coaching with Michael Mackintosh for people who want a clearer, more deliberate relationship with phones, media and online work.

About

Michael Mackintosh Michael Mackintosh is an author, meditation teacher, entrepreneur and mentor. Explore his books, meditations, training, companies and private mentoring.
The Carrier Pigeon Problem If Michael wants to share something without using the internet, the alternatives become ridiculous very quickly.
Privacy The 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 Media PDF · 105 KB
365 Things To Do Instead Of Checking Your Phone PDF · 85 KB
Digital Detox Playbook PDF · 492 KB
Entranced — Author Review Copy PDF · 791 KB
Entranced — Free Sample PDF · 302 KB