We hear it everywhere: “Unplug to reset.” “Take a digital detox.” “Turn off notifications and go outside.”
There’s some truth in that. If your phone is the first thing you reach for when you wake up and the last thing you stare at before bed, if your brain feels like a noisy browser with 47 tabs open, you’re probably overwhelmed. But the suggestion to simply “unplug” as a solution for tech burnout misses the mark.
Because burnout doesn’t come from having access to technology. It comes from how we interact with it. More specifically, from the way modern tech platforms have engineered frictionless experiences—streamlined, infinite, addictive—and in the process, stripped away our ability to feel intentional.
We’re not tired because of our devices. We’re tired because we’ve lost the ability to choose how we use them.
That’s where the real fix begins. Not with stepping away forever. But by reintroducing better friction.
The Problem Isn’t Overuse, It’s Passive Use
Let’s make a distinction upfront.
Using tech isn’t the problem. Most of us use it for work, connection, creativity, and curiosity. We research with it. Build with it. Stay in touch with friends, clients, and communities. But when we burn out, it’s usually not because we’ve done too much. It’s because we’ve absorbed too much, too passively.
Scroll. Tap. Refresh. Consume.
Modern tech is designed to flatten time. You open TikTok “just for a second” and an hour disappears. You check email on a Saturday “just to stay ahead” and end up drafting five replies with your lunch going cold. You think you’re choosing, but the experience is mostly choosing you.
The commonality behind all of it is low friction. The easier something is to engage with, the harder it becomes to resist. And when everything is easy to start but hard to stop, the cumulative effect is exhaustion.
Not because we’ve been working. But because we’ve been drifting.
Friction Isn’t the Enemy. Mindless Ease Is.
There’s this prevailing idea that tech should always be effortless. That every update should make something faster, simpler, smoother. And sure, some frictionless design is brilliant. No one’s asking to go back to dial-up or floppy disks.
But not all ease is helpful. When a task becomes too easy to initiate, it can short-circuit your attention. That’s exactly how infinite scroll, autoplay, and push notifications work. They remove the pause—the moment where you’d otherwise ask, “Do I actually want to keep doing this?”
That pause matters. Because it creates space for discernment.
In psychology, there’s a concept called choice architecture. It refers to the way environments are structured to influence decision-making. Tech platforms today have mastered this architecture, but for their gain, not yours. They make consumption seamless, constant, and compelling, so you stay longer than you meant to.
The fix? Start building your own architecture. One that adds just enough friction to make you pause, choose, and re-engage with intention.
What Does Better Friction Look Like?
We don’t need to abandon tech. But we do need to reshape how we engage with it. And that starts with introducing friction on purpose.
Here are a few ways to do that without swearing off screens or disappearing into the woods for a week.
1. Make It Harder to Start, Easier to Stop
If you open Instagram out of habit 40 times a day, move it off your home screen. If you check email the moment you wake up, log out each night so the login screen is your first friction point. Add a password manager step between you and your distractions. Not because it’s “secure,” but because it forces you to choose.
On the flip side, reduce friction around stopping. Set timers. Use app limits. Keep a visual cue nearby that reminds you to close the tab, get up, or move on. The goal is not self-punishment. It’s interrupting inertia.
2. Put Time in Containers
We burn out when time becomes porous. When “just five minutes” of Slack turns into an hour of reactive scrambling. The fix here isn’t less tech. It’s more structure.
Use time blocks. Focus timers. Calendar boundaries. Not to become a productivity machine, but to know when you’re on and when you’re off. Decision fatigue sets in when everything feels urgent all the time. Containers give you breathing room.
3. Use Slower Tools for Deep Work
Sometimes it’s not about escaping tech, but about choosing the right kind. Text editors with no bells and whistles. Tools that don’t auto-save every keystroke to the cloud. Local apps over browser tabs. Markdown instead of Google Docs.
Slower tools make you work at a human rhythm. They introduce micro-frictions that reduce multitasking and encourage presence.
Remember, fast tech isn’t always better tech.
Burnout is About Control, Not Capacity
There’s a common misconception that burnout is just about doing too much. But more often, it’s about doing things without control. Without boundaries. Without a clear sense of why we’re doing them in the first place.
That’s what tech burnout really is. A form of attention fatigue, caused not by excess effort, but by excess surrender.
You didn’t consciously decide to scroll for two hours. You didn’t deliberately want to be reachable every second of the day. You didn’t plan to check Slack during dinner. But it happened anyway.
The antidote isn’t complete withdrawal. It’s regaining agency. And agency thrives in environments that let you feel friction—not the kind that makes things harder just to be hard, but the kind that returns you to yourself before you say yes.
But What About the Urge to Disconnect?
Let’s be clear, taking breaks from tech is valuable. There’s wisdom in stepping away to reset your nervous system, take a walk, or spend time offline. But the long-term fix isn’t periodic escape. It’s sustainable engagement.
“Unplugging” is a temporary solution to a persistent design problem. You can take a week off social media, but if you come back to the same environment that hijacks your attention, the cycle will start again.
The deeper fix is behavioral design. Curate your digital spaces with the same care you’d give a physical one. Keep tools that align with your goals, not just your habits. Cut out platforms that drain more than they give. Use blockers. Set rules. Invite slowness.
Not because you’re trying to be a monk, but because your mind deserves better input.
The Hidden Benefit of Good Friction
When you start to add healthy friction back into your tech life, something surprising happens.
You don’t just avoid burnout. You actually enjoy your tools more.
You read with more focus. You write with more flow. You connect with more presence. You stop confusing convenience for meaning. And instead of feeling constantly pulled, you begin to feel rooted again in what matters, what you value, what you’ve chosen to say yes to.
Tech isn’t going anywhere. And neither is burnout, unless we learn how to use our tools without being used by them.
Unplugging might help you catch your breath. But if you want to breathe deeply every day, the fix isn’t less tech. It’s better tech boundaries. Better choices. Better friction.
The goal is simple: build a digital life that feels like you built it, not one that quietly built itself around your inattention.