There is a strange shift happening with technology.
For years, almost every inconvenience seemed to have the same solution: another app, another notification, another feed, another way to stay connected.
Now, more people are looking for ways to disconnect—at least a little.
App blockers are becoming more common. People are turning off notifications, deleting social apps from their home screens, carrying simpler devices, reading physical books again, and deliberately putting their phones somewhere they cannot reach.
The trend has become noticeable enough that The Atlantic recently described it as a “scrolling backlash”: a growing push against endless feeds and constant digital stimulation. Read The Atlantic’s discussion of the scrolling backlash.
But this does not have to become another argument about whether smartphones are good or bad.
Phones are useful.
Technology is useful.
The more practical question is whether you are choosing when to use technology—or whether technology is constantly choosing when to interrupt you.
If your ability to concentrate feels weaker than it used to, you probably do not need to throw your smartphone away.
You may simply need to reclaim your attention.
The Problem Isn’t Really the Phone
Think about how often this happens.
You pick up your phone to check the weather.
Then you notice a notification.
You open it.
That leads to another app.
Then a video starts.
Another video appears underneath it.
A headline catches your attention.
You check the comments.
Twenty minutes later, you are looking at something completely unrelated to the reason you picked up your phone.
That is very different from deliberately deciding to spend 20 minutes watching videos.
The problem is not simply screen time.
It is the transition from intentional use to automatic use.
And many digital platforms are exceptionally good at making that transition easy.
A book eventually ends.
A television episode has credits.
A newspaper has a final page.
An infinite feed has no natural stopping point.
There is always something else underneath the thing you are currently looking at.
Stopping requires you to make the decision.
Why Scrolling Can Affect More Than the Minutes You Spend Doing It
It is easy to calculate the obvious productivity cost of scrolling.
Ten minutes here.
Fifteen minutes there.
Thirty minutes before bed.
But the real cost can extend beyond the time shown on the clock.
Research published in Computers in Human Behavior examined doomscrolling during the workday and found that it was associated with increased rumination and decreased work engagement. Read the research on doomscrolling and work engagement.
That makes intuitive sense.
Imagine taking a five-minute break from work and spending it reading upsetting news, arguments, alarming predictions, or emotionally charged posts.
You put your phone down.
But your brain may not immediately put the information down with it.
Now you are physically back at work while part of your attention is still somewhere else.
That helps explain why some scrolling breaks do not feel particularly restorative.
You stopped working, but you never really gave your attention a break.
Your Attention May Not Be Gone—It May Be Constantly Interrupted
There is an important difference between being unable to concentrate and rarely giving yourself an environment in which concentration can happen.
Modern digital life creates countless opportunities to interrupt yourself.
A message arrives.
You check email.
A notification appears.
You remember something you wanted to search for.
You open another tab.
Your phone vibrates.
You glance at it.
None of these interruptions seems particularly serious by itself.
But repeat them all day and sustained concentration becomes unusual.
This connects closely with the broader productivity problem we covered in Productivity in 2026: How to Get More Done Without Working More Hours: productivity is increasingly about protecting limited attention rather than squeezing more activity into every available minute.
Scrolling simply adds another competitor for that attention.
What Happened When Researchers Removed Mobile Internet
One of the more interesting experiments on this subject did not require participants to abandon their smartphones.
Researchers blocked mobile internet access on their phones for two weeks while still allowing calls, text messages, and internet access through other devices such as computers.
The randomized controlled trial found improvements in sustained attention, subjective well-being, and mental-health measures. Researchers reported that 91% of participants improved on at least one of the three main outcomes. Read the PNAS Nexus study.
Participants also shifted some of their time toward offline activities such as face-to-face socializing, exercise, and spending time in nature.
That does not prove that everyone should shut off mobile internet for two weeks.
The intervention was deliberately stronger than what most people would probably want in everyday life.
But it demonstrates something useful:
Having constant access to something is different from choosing when to access it.
And you can experiment with that distinction without giving up your smartphone.
