The Digital Distraction Ratio (Again)

Welcome to the 23 new readers who have joined us since last week! If you haven’t subscribed, join 2300+ smart, curious people trying to survive the internet with their brains intact, by subscribing here:

Before we get into it…

1) Dropped a new episode of The Kanso Show with OthersideAI co-founder Jason Kuperberg where we talked about finding presence through running (he’s run 7 marathons!), how social media can spark IRL friendships, and how AI will impact interpersonal relationships, among many other things.

Give it a listen here:

I started this newsletter in June of 2024. Since then it’s nearly 4x’d in size (lfg!) which means that a lot of you haven’t seen many of my earlier posts.

So for this week, I wanted to resurface an excerpt from June 2024, with a few additional notes. I’ve also done my best to link back to many of the older posts where applicable, so you can binge to your heart’s desire.

This topic has been extremely top of mind as digital wellness becomes a hotter subject in the cultural discourse (shoutout to The Master’s no-phone policy for spurring the newest wave of mainstream discussion), and more and more friends are asking me about how they can improve their digital habits.

By now, nearly everyone on earth can agree that too much tech usage is bad for us both at an individual level and collectively as a society.

Study after study points to social media as a major culprit behind skyrocketing rates of teen suicide, depression, and anxiety. While I’ve seen less research on it, I’d imagine the same plays out with millennials and anyone who even falls at the fringe of the ‘digitally native’ cohort.

High schoolers are hanging out, dating, and having sex at far lower rates than previous generations. US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has been a persistent voice of warning, shining a spotlight on the public health crisis of loneliness and isolation that our growing reliance on digital platforms has only made worse.

Yet as a collective society, we seem unable to take decisive action on what regulation or intervention should be implemented to reverse these trends.

While I understand the incentives at play (big tech, investors, and advertisers want more money), it baffles me to see something so evident be so widely ignored.

Part of the problem is the lack of guidance on how to combat technology addiction (something I aim to address through this newsletter and Kanso), but another significant challenge is the absence of clear metrics for tracking improvement.

Unlike other growth-minded goals, such as improving physical health or financial well-being, reducing technology addiction lacks a clear-cut, quantifiable path to success.

Losing weight is generally simple: burn more calories than you consume, and the number on the scale will go down.

The same goes for saving money — spend less than you earn, and your savings will increase.

But when it comes to building better tech habits, it's not so straightforward. Especially when you factor in the highly personal nuances of how our tech habits affect our broader health and longevity.

Because technology usage is so ingrained in our lives, identifying the quantifiable metrics to measure progress is incredibly nuanced and complex.

Screen time is often considered the quintessential measure of progress in managing technology addiction, but it fails to account for the quality and intention behind our device usage.

Think about it. Using Google Maps for navigation during a five-hour road trip is fundamentally different from mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.

Similarly, spending two hours on a video call with a loved one who lives across the country cannot be equated with binge-watching your favorite TV series.

The same logic applies to 'Pickups', another main metric captured by Apple's Screen Time feature. While reducing the number of times you pick up your phone each day is a good leading indicator, it doesn't always reflect meaningful progress. 

For example, picking up your phone only three times per day but spending two hours each time falling down a social media rabbit hole is hardly a win.

This realization led me to seek a more nuanced and effective approach to managing my screen time and measuring my progress — one that focused on the quality and intention behind my usage, rather than just the quantity.

The Digital Distraction Ratio

Building healthier tech habits is analogous to financial budgeting, but instead of money, you're tracking your most valuable asset — time.

Like your finances, there are "fixed costs" when it comes to screen time, such as work emails, important calls, or navigation. These are the non-negotiable ways you use your phone as a tool.

Auditing your screen time over the past months helps establish a baseline for these relatively consistent "fixed costs." But, it's the "variable screen time" (mindless scrolling, endless social media feeds, and addictive games etc) that eats up your valuable time without providing meaningful returns.

To better quantify progress in reducing variable screen time, I created the Digital Distraction Ratio (DDR):

Digital Distraction Ratio (DDR) = (Variable Screen Time / Waking Hours) x 100

The goal is to keep your DDR as low as possible, as a high DDR suggests you might be spending more time on unproductive, unfulfilling activities and less time on things that truly matter.

The beauty of this ratio is that it focuses on the screen time you can control, rather than the essential stuff that keeps your life on track.

Personally, I aim for a weekly DDR of under 10% by designing a life that makes scrolling less exciting, but you can set your own goals.

Note: ​​Apple's Screen Time feature only allows you to view data for the past month, which can make it challenging to track your progress over a longer period so, I created the Digital Habit Tracker and Conscious Screen Time Plan to get a more accurate view of my screen time data.

It requires around ~30 min of work every month to keep updated, but it’s by far the clearest picture of my tech habits I can find.

It's your job to identify which apps are 'variable' and which are 'fixed.' If you have an iPhone, you can use Screen Time to help determine where you spend most of your time. If an app falls into both 'fixed' and 'variable' categories, you may need to track more intently to see how much time falls into each category.

Tracking Progress Towards Offline Goals

But while the DDR and other metrics are useful indicators, they don't paint the full picture. 

The true measure of progress is the time invested in meaningful offline activities that align with your Rocks & Pebbles. 

Just as Netflix views sleep as their largest competitor, our tech usage competes with other valuable activities for our remaining time.

With an average of 8 hours spent sleeping and 9 or more hours dedicated to work, our favorite hobbies and personal goals often compete directly with smartphone and computer usage.

To effectively measure the impact of reducing smartphone addiction, identify an offline goal, relationship, or activity in which you want to reinvest your time.

Track how much time you spend on this activity while keeping the rest of your time allocation constant.

If your screen time goes down and your time spent working towards your goal goes up, you are making positive progress.

For example, I decided I wanted to spend more time reading instead of being on my phone. As my screen time decreased, my daily reading time (and the amount of books I read per month) increased. It’s not perfect, but it’s fairly clear that the extra time was clearly coming from reduced phone usage.

It’s also important to note that engaging in offline activities doesn’t always mean you need to be doing something specific or productive. In fact, one of the most valuable offline pursuits is simply spending time alone doing nothing.

Solitude allows us to reflect, recharge, and reconnect with ourselves on a deeper level. It provides a space for introspection, creativity, and self-discovery.

So, as you work on the reducing your smartphone addiction, remember that carving out time for doing nothing and sitting alone with your thoughts is crucial, especially since most of us reach for our phones during periods of boredom and awkwardness to avoid exactly that.

Try to embrace the quiet moments and allow yourself to simply be present without the need for constant stimulation or interaction.

While this may seem challenging at first, start small and be patient with yourself. Identify specific offline SMART goals, track your progress, and create more space for experimentation and awe.

The path forward isn't about discarding technology entirely. That would be both impractical and unhelpful. The real challenge is developing a more intentional relationship with these tools - one where we use them rather than being used by them.

My Businesses & Social Links

If you’re looking to improve your digital wellness, here are a few places to start:

Kanso Experiences - Unforgettable phone-free social experiences for ambitious people who are tired of the feed and hungry for real relationships.

Kanso Reset45 Cohorts - A cohort-based bootcamp to reprogram your tech habits in 45 days. If you’re interested in joining, reply to this email.

Kanso 1:1 Digital Wellness Accountability Coaching - For those who need high-touch, personalized support and daily ongoing accountability.

The Digital Reset Journal - The first journal designed to help you build a healthier relationship with tech

Digital Detox Tools - A free directory of 100+ digital wellness tools to integrate into all areas of your life.

Follow me across platforms:

X/Twitter (@GinsburgRandy)

Instagram (@randy_ginsburg)

YouTube (@KansoRandy) - a lot more coming here soon

LinkedIn

You can find Kanso across Instagram and TikTok @getkanso too.

That’s all for this week. Now stop scrolling, and go do something great.

— Randy