Thanks Lindsi for a useful article. I’d go further and argue that modern society is becoming profoundly unwell because of poor lifestyle choices that include far too much screen time. Instead of taking a temporary detox, which is akin to swearing off McSlop for a couple of days, it may be better to recognize that our screens have become like cigarettes: they create mental cancer.

Personally I am in front of a screen for business purposes about 4 hours per day and for Medium about an hour a day. In the evening I watch French-language shows on Netflix for no more than 90 minutes. My phone is off for far more hours per day than it’s on, and I pick it up only to make or receive a communication. I have no social media apps on it and I’d never use it to watch an entertainment. I run or hike in the forest every day, and spend an hour in the gym every day. I read French-language books for leisure as this contributes to improving my language skills. At the end of the summer I’ll move onto Russian for the same reason.

This regime has enabled me to retain my mental health, most notably during the recent months when 99% of the world appears to have been stampeded into mindless hysteria by a totally irresponsible mass media entirely reliant on creating endless sensationalism in order to maintain ad revenues.

In the end, we have to recognize that if we let toxic junk into our heads it will make us just as sick as putting toxic junk into our bodies.