Unplug
How to Break Up with Your Phone and Reclaim Your Life
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Turn off your phone and turn on your life with step-by-step instructions and success stories from dozens of people who’ve set healthy boundaries with their devices.
The average American spends the equivalent of more than 75 full days a year looking at their phone. It can become an all-consuming addiction that puts a strain on virtually every facet of our existence from the way we sleep, eat, and exercise to our ability to focus and make new memories. Most importantly, it takes us away from our lives, our relationships, and the real world. But although it may seem impossible, there is always a way to overcome digital distraction: you can always turn off your phone.
In Unplug, Richard Simon lays out a plan to detox from your phone, including things to do with your newfound time, lightly reintegrating a smartphone into your life, and finally, helping others quit. These tips and strategies are interspersed with success stories, including Simon’s own story of turning off his phone for a whole year, plus those of 25 others, including a professional baseball player (Nick Castellanos), a cable news host (Steve Hilton), as well as ordinary folks including a principal, a pastor, and a couple who quit their phones together. Plus, expert insights from bestselling authors and physicians who specialize in digital wellness including Dr. Anna Lembke (Dopamine Nation), and Brian Merchant (The One Device).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Simon debuts with a commonsense manual for setting healthier boundaries with one's smartphone. After becoming a parent in 2016, the author, sensing that his phone had become a distraction from "the realities of life" with his wife and kids, turned it off altogether—a yearlong experiment that bolstered his relationships with his family. Using this test case as a springboard, he explains how smartphones hijack the brain's reward system by triggering a release of dopamine when the screen is tapped—incentivizing constant checking and making it tougher to engage in higher-lift dopamine-releasing activities such as reading, exercising, or gardening. He details how to detox from one's phone to allow the brain to reset its reward pathways; grapple with withdrawal symptoms; find new sources of dopamine; and more responsibly reintegrate the phone into daily life. While the scientific explanations of dopamine's role in smartphone addiction feel well-worn, readers will benefit from Simon's straightforward, step-by-step approach, interspersed with useful sidebars on such topics as why well-meaning "digital hacks," like deleting social media apps, are mostly ineffective. Readers uncomfortable with how much they're glued to their devices will be inspired to break free. Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly stated the author switched his smartphone for a flip phone.
