Would you pay someone to spend a week reading in silence? The digital detox industry continues to grow, including apps, books, training courses, and Wi-Fi-free vacations

Google and Meta were ordered by a U.S. court to pay – 6 million dollars – to compensate a woman who had accused the two Big Tech companies of worsening her anxiety and depression, by encouraging the use of specific mechanisms within their platforms in order to generate a sort of dependency in users, without considering the consequences on mental health.

It is the first time that a case on this topic has ended with such a ruling. The issue, not surprisingly, has sparked considerable debate, also because it is likely to create a significant legal precedent – especially considering that around 2,000 similar lawsuits are currently underway worldwide.

Many content creators active in the field of digital detox have leveraged the case to offer advice to users and promote their services. Paradoxically, in fact, digital detox is a very popular topic on social networks, as well as a profitable one. The sector – through apps, books, training courses or vacations in places without Internet, among other things – generated a global commercial turnover of over 2 billion euros in 2025.

Why the digital detox industry is so successful

Many content creators active in the digital detox space, both online and offline, particularly promote a more analog lifestyle, based for example on practices known by the expression «touch grass», used to suggest reconnecting with the real world, taking a break from smartphones and paying attention to one’s psychophysical well-being.

This type of narrative is often effective because it taps into a fairly widespread feeling: on one hand, many people feel the need to do without smartphones, aware that they cannot control their use, but on the other hand they recognize how social, professional and relational life revolves around mobile devices. Not all users, moreover, are truly aware of having a problem with doomscrolling.

The commercial success of the digital detox industry stems precisely from this and, in some respects, resembles that of the sector dedicated to helping people quit smoking, which experienced strong expansion starting in the 1990s thanks to books, medications and other products. In the past, major cigarette manufacturers were also accused of doing nothing to limit the negative effects of their products, despite being aware of them: for this reason, following compensation payouts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, they agreed to change their marketing strategies to increase the safety and awareness of consumers.

Individual and collective digital detox

In the field of digital detox, the most popular product is apps: there are dozens that limit the use of social networks – or other platforms based on similar logic – through temporary blocks, challenges to complete, or motivational messages. However, individual commercial solutions, such as services that block access to other apps, do not always work in the medium and long term, because after short breaks users often tend to revert to their previous habits.

Moreover, the digital detox trend is often described as a Western phenomenon, but in reality in recent years the sector has expanded rapidly elsewhere as well, especially in Asia, where in some cases the issue has been addressed with collective measures – given the limited effectiveness of individual ones. For example, the Japanese city of Toyoake, in the central part of the country, recently issued guidelines on smartphone use, particularly encouraging families to establish shared rules to use them less. Something similar happened in Vadgaon, a city in western India, where the local administration formally invited the population to avoid using technological devices in the evening, suggesting instead spending time outdoors.