I think this dismissal really ignores a very crucial difference. Unlike magazines or even TV for that matter, the new social media has personalized and detailed information on individuals and can tailor their content and design to target every person individually.

IMO, that is a substantial and qualitative difference that makes the new “distraction” mediums far more effective and dangerous.

One other problem is, magazines end. They have X articles, of which you find Y interesting enough to read, and then that's that. You read it. It's done. You go do something else.

Digital feeds never end. There's always something new, always something interesting. There's always something. You can keep staring at the screen endlessly. And if one app doesn't give new stuff anymore, there's 10 other apps within a tap away to give you more.

Yeah, having lived in the world before the Web had much on it, when it was slow and inconvenient to use, and could only be used certain places (at a desk, with a computer), when a computer not connected to the Internet wasn't a useless paperweight, and then in the world after Facebook and the iPhone and the full blossoming of the spyvertising industry, web-connected cell phones and the modern attention economy are strikingly different. There's no comparison to books or magazines, however low-value, or even to TV or radio. It's a whole other thing, and overall mostly terrible.

The key thing is electricity. Spend 48 hours on your own without it (and without any preparation).

The first 24 will have you eeking out the last bit of battery from gadgets. You can also turn in early for the night, listening to a battery powered radio.

Then in the second 24 hours, with no electricity, see what happens. You might use the daylight hours to tidy up or fix a few broken things. You might read those books that have been collecting dust. You might actually write something with pen and paper. Food is cold, beverages are cold. There is no power shower. Daylight hours matter, you have to get whatever it is you are doing done before it is dark.

48 hours is about enough. You can remind yourself in that time how 24/7 media distractions don't really help. When you get back online none of those missed emails and notifications really mattered. It feels like a mini-holiday has been had. Warm food tastes great again, as does tea/coffee.

Turning off a phone for a few hours only gets you part way into the digital detox experience, flicking the big electricity switch and keeping it off for more than a day is much more enlightening.

... NOt really.

Candles exist and are great sources of light. I can do pretty much normal stuff, albeit with less noise. I just make more artwork.

Fire exists and you can cook on it. Refrigeration, however, doesn't. Showers suck because they are cold, but for 48 hours, most will just skip it. Otherwise, heat up water on the fire for washing up.

Depending on where you live, you might not have water. I've lived a few places on a well that absolutely required electricity to have running water.

Besides, what you are talking about is ... relaxation and vacation. Folks do this all the time when they go camping. Or here, stay out in a primitive cabin in the mountains. One doesn't need to go full nomad to experience benefits from a relaxing vacation weekend.

You now have me wondering whether I should try shutting off all of my circuit breakers (except the fridge) for the whole of this weekend.

Now that I've said it, I kinda want to do it.

The fridge and freezer survived last time I gave this a go, although there wasn't a lot in the freezer. Or the fridge for that matter.

I would say that going cold turkey on the electricity for 48 hours so you get a complete 24 hour cycle is well worth it. Apart from anything else electricity is taken for granted and it should not be.

With our computer backups we only know if the backups work if we can restore from them. We don't just assume it will be okay because we have everything on tape.

Recently the Russians closed off the internet access to the wider web to see if they could cope with the USA cutting the cord.

I would say that testing life without the electricity is one of those things, worth doing not just for 'personal growth' reasons but out of preparedness. It isn't prepper alarmism, there could be a flood, fire or other freak weather incident that puts you off grid.

In a sibling comment there is mention of candles. Most people don't have a lot of these, or, if in a built up area, an actual fireplace. I would advise against doing any preparation as in buying alternative supplies and in that way night is night.

There is an actual climate emergency going on right now and buying a Tesla isn't going to help. Going cold turkey on electricity for the thought experiment value does help. Afterwards you realise that you need little more than what you would normally waste on 'phantom power' losses. Time also becomes valued differently, as per the original article we have an 'attention economy' and electricity facilitates that. When you realise you have to read an actual book in actual silence for 'amusement' and then quite enjoy it, your value system changes.

Sure but at least with a paperback or movie you are wasting time learning a little bit about the world or appreciating someones art. There are people who are getting all their news from misleading social media posts and comments. People used to read news articles and get a nuanced understanding of the world, now they read and share racist memes and we wonder why politics have never been more polarized.