The Annex: eight in ten like the idea of a digital detox — and a seven-item scale to measure it

The document. “In Favour of Digital Detox: Developing the Attitude Towards Digital Detox Scale”, by Svenja Winkler, Lisa Eckmann, Torsten Bornemann and Jan R. Landwehr, in Psychology & Marketing¹. The team spans the University of Bath and Goethe University Frankfurt¹.

The line. Across seven studies the researchers built and validated a seven-item scale that measures how positively people view a temporary cut in digital use¹. More than eight in ten participants viewed a “digital detox” positively — evidence, the authors say, of a widespread latent wish to switch off — though the work did not test whether those people then did so¹. Attitude scores linked to traits such as mindfulness and self-control, and predicted how much time people spent watching online videos in the study setting¹.

The lines around it. Prof. Jan Landwehr puts the motive plainly: many people feel overwhelmed by the constant flow of digital information and want to disconnect; the scale makes that “vague positive attitude” measurable¹. Prof. Torsten Bornemann says the next use is practical: when and why people want to cut back, and whether a change in attitude helps them take more control¹. Samples included US adults on research platforms, central European students, Reddit communities and consumer-behaviour experts¹.

The caveats. Liking the idea of a detox is not detoxing. The press release is clear that behaviour change was not measured¹. Attitudes can flatter; evenings with the phone still win.

The constructive reading. If eight in ten already approve of a pause, the scarce resource is not motivation slogans. It is design: notification defaults, library quiet hours, school phone policies, and a calendar block that treats an hour offline as an appointment. The scale gives researchers something sharper than a vibe. For you, the cheaper experiment still works: pick one window this weekend, put the phone in another room, and see whether the wish survives contact with boredom.