[Viewpoint] The age of digital overload is giving way to the rise of the digital detox!

When life is driven by excess, a period of detox - or even full‑on rehabilitation - may become necessary. And it's not just about substance abuse; behaviours such as gambling, sex, or compulsive shopping fall into the same category. Likewise, after saturating ourselves with digital stimuli and constant connection, many people now feel the need for a voluntarily chosen break spent away from social media and digital environments of any kind - smartphones, tablets, computers, and similar devices - with the goal of reassessing and restoring a healthier relationship with technology.

As Alessio Carciofi explains in his book Digital Detox, the literature identifies two distinct approaches to digital detoxing. The first, very much in the American tradition, is a “forced disconnection from all smartphones, devices, and digital tools for a couple of days or slightly more.” The second, more Mediterranean in spirit, resembles a reflective pause aimed at understanding how to use digital technologies more consciously and constructively.

According to recent statistics, the average person taps or checks their smartphone around 2,600 times a day - a figure that climbs above 5,400 for the most dependent users. Within five minutes of waking up, most people have already checked their phone for messages, notifications, emails, news, or social updates.

More and more people are experimenting with stepping back from digital media while rediscovering older technologies - vinyl records, CDs (being physical formats), compact cassettes, analogue cameras, printed paper, and even phones that simply make phone calls. These are the so‑called dumb phones: no apps, often a physical keypad, and only a handful of basic functions such as taking photos or playing music stored locally on the device. No streaming, no algorithm telling you what to listen to, no playlists generated by a virtual assistant. You choose the album or track yourself, just like pulling an LP off the shelf and playing it from start to finish.

Companies have seized the moment and begun releasing products designed for a more disconnected lifestyle. One of the most interesting - especially for music lovers - is the Nokia 5710 XA (Xpress Audio), priced at around €80 and featuring several unusual touches. Its wireless earbuds slide directly into the phone's body, charging internally without the need for an external case. It also offers physical buttons, some dedicated exclusively to music playback, which must be stored as MP3 files on the internal memory or an SD card. There's an FM radio, a dedicated loudspeaker, and a full equalizer. Unfortunately, it lacks a wired‑headphone minijack (see last month's editorial). It can shoot low‑resolution photos and videos - and not much else.

Interestingly, this cultural shift appears to be led by digital natives themselves - Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) - as reported by Vertu. Unsurprisingly, they're the same consumers driving the comeback of wired headphones, vinyl, and even CDs.

So when boomers lash out at younger generations for being “glued to their phones,” they might want to take a look in the mirror - because it's the youngest users who are actually starting to use them less.

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June 2026 Editorial

After the digital binge comes the inevitable digital detox