Smartphone and social media use can induce a physical drain and an addictive response that mimics the behavior of someone with a substance or behavioral addiction.

“the first person when my phone loses power I feel a physical drain within my body and when it comes back on I feel a lift within my body”

Digital distraction is primarily caused by specific products engineered to capture attention, and removing them makes the internet much less distracting.

“the most important decision I think I made technically speaking to be a cognitive worker is I the lack of social media like I I I think we underestimate the degree to which our problem with digital distraction is not the Internet it's not our phones it is specific products and services”

Whitney claims that constant phone usage and documentation prevent people from processing the passage of time accurately.

“I was reading about how um we can't process uh the passage of time properly anymore because we're not in the moment because we're on our phones or when we're having a what is going to be a future memory.”

Gordhamer suggests that creating barriers such as bookending the day without technology can help us avoid constant consumption.

“The biggest tool that I recommend is just creating some barriers for your day. So the first hour of the morning, how do we spend that? The last hour of the evening, how do we spend that?”