The mindless pull of the infinite scroll has a way of turning every spare moment into a lost hour. It starts as a quick check for a notification or a brief distraction during a work break, but these apps are engineered to keep you trapped in a loop of "just one more."

Before long, that reflex to reach for your phone becomes an automatic response to any second of boredom, leaving you stuck in a cycle of digital noise that is hard to break with willpower alone.

I miss the feeling of calm that comes with being without a smartphone. And I'm not the only one. A Pew Research survey from 2024 found that 72% of US teens say they feel "peaceful" when they don't have their smartphone, while 44% say it makes them anxious.

Watch this: Ditching My iPhone for the Low-Tech Light Phone 3. Can I Survive?

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But switching off is hard.…