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Fiona Sun

In the second instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on Hong Kong’s growing wellness trends, Fiona Sun looks into how residents are embracing digital detox, as experts warn that excessive screen use is linked to anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.
For Robert Broad, stepping away from electronic devices has become part of a self-care routine he developed after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 56-year-old recalled how spending long hours in front of screens while working remotely affected his physical and mental health and reduced the time he spent with family and friends.
“I became a lot more anxious, I wasn’t sleeping as much, I gained weight – all of those things started to snowball and take a toll on me and my relationships,” he said.
Determined to restore a sense of balance, Broad began with small, manageable steps that could develop into lasting habits.
When he returns home from work, he puts his mobile phone in a drawer. He has disabled news alerts and keeps notifications on only for his parents and anyone who may need to reach him in an emergency.
He has also switched his phone to greyscale to make it less appealing and checks his emails in batches rather than as they arrive. He stops checking them at 8.30pm each day.

Electronic devices are banned from the dinner table and the bedroom. At weekends, he makes a point of leaving his phone at home for short periods, including during 20-minute walks with his dog.
“What I try to do with my detox is carve out moments when I can be mindful and present in the activities I’m doing, particularly when there are kids around,” he said.
Broad, who has an 11-year-old son, is the founder of Look Up Hong Kong, a group that promotes children’s well-being in the digital age.
“In a city like Hong Kong, a realistic detox is sort of small, repeatable, screen-free pockets of the day,” he said.
“Start with just one thing. Don’t try to do too many things at once because that tends to fail like any restriction. If you go on a very strict diet, for example, and only eat cabbage for five days, it’s not going to work.”
In a city built on speed, constant connectivity and packed schedules, more people in Hong Kong are trying to step away from screens.
From phone-free habits and weekend breaks to meditation and spa retreats, digital detox is gaining momentum as residents seek to manage stress, sleep better and reclaim their attention in an always-on culture.
No longer merely a wellness buzzword, digital detox has become a coping strategy for navigating a world in which work, social life and even family communication often take place through electronic devices.
Hong Kong has a high rate of digital-device ownership. Official statistics showed that 96.8 per cent of people aged 10 and above had a smartphone last year.
Data also showed that 96.4 per cent of those aged 10 and above had used the internet last year.




Chan Kai-tai, a clinical professional consultant and associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that although internet addiction was not a recognised medical condition, excessive use of digital devices was associated with inattention, emotional problems such as anxiety and depression, and sleep disorders.
“Is it really toxic? Is it like diabetes, where you have to restrict your diet? Yes, it is,” he said.
Chan said young people were among those most vulnerable to unhealthy uses of digital devices, having grown up with smartphones and tablet computers as part of their socialisation, learning and leisure.
Older residents had also become more susceptible as they grew increasingly reliant on digital devices to communicate with their children and combat social isolation, he said.
People experiencing emotional problems or stress might be more likely to seek comfort online, while those in certain professions, such as influencers and online media employees, were also vulnerable, Chan added.
“When you find it difficult to stop or even feel genuine cravings, or when your mood clearly worsens whenever you are not using electronic devices, you need to take it seriously,” he warned.
Chan said a digital detox could take many forms, but the key was to cultivate healthy and rational screen-time habits.
“Digital detox is essentially about the regulation of usage, namely controlling the duration of digital activities to minimise the negative impact on oneself, such as mood, sleep and addiction problems,” he said.

Experts said even simple measures could make a difference, including turning off non-essential notifications, setting daily screen-time limits, keeping phones away from the dinner table and bedroom, or taking a day offline.
They also recommended replacing screen time with offline activities such as playing sports, meeting friends, attending concerts or museum exhibitions and taking weekend breaks in parks or the countryside to reconnect with nature and greenery.
Tim Li Man-ho, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Chinese University, said blue light from screens could suppress melatonin production and disrupt sleep.
He advised avoiding electronic devices for at least two hours before bedtime.
Instead, he suggested winding down with calming activities such as listening to music, reading, or practising meditation or yoga to help the body and mind relax before sleep.
But experts said people who found themselves unable to control their screen use should seek professional help.

A programme run by the Hong Kong Christian Service to help young people with internet addiction receives about 100 new cases each year, most of them pupils in Forms One to Three, according to Joe Tang Chun-yu, who is in charge of the charity’s online addiction counselling centre.
Tang said internet addiction was increasingly affecting younger age groups, with primary school pupils accounting for about 30 per cent of service users.
The most commonly used devices among them were iPads and mobile phones, he said. In the most serious cases, youngsters dropped out of school or came into conflict with their families because of excessive screen use, he added.
Many of them faced difficulties in the real world, including social isolation, bullying at school and difficulty expressing themselves, prompting them to turn to the internet as an escape, Tang said.
“The key is to identify the dissatisfaction with reality that led to their addiction and address it so they can regain balance in their lives,” he said.
Tang suggested that parents engage more with their children, learn about their thoughts and arrange activities to replace screen use. Youngsters should also be encouraged to develop new interests away from electronic devices, he said.
As awareness grows, more parents are becoming mindful of how their use of electronic devices may affect their children.
Jeannie Leung is cutting back on her own screen time to shield her eight-year-old daughter from the harms of excessive device use and set a better example at home.
“She said, ‘Mummy, I feel that when you’re on the phone, you’re not really with me, you’re not really paying attention to me’,” Leung recalled of a conversation with her daughter about three years ago.
“That caught me off guard and I realised this was an issue that I needed to address.”
Leung, who is in her forties and works in education and charity, has drawn a clear line at home: no phones at the dinner table and no electronic devices in the bedroom.
She has gone further, deleting social media apps from her phone and switching off mobile data for other apps to curb the urge to scroll.
During her MTR commute, she now swaps her phone for a book or simply sits back and relaxes.
Leung said she had reduced her daily screen time to about three hours, including work-related use such as messaging on WhatsApp.
Since setting these boundaries, she said she had more time to engage with her daughter, as well as better sleep and less anxiety.
“It’s been a process to do it on a diligent basis and to do it so that in a way it becomes second nature,” she said.


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From phone-free habits to weekend breaks, residents are embracing digital detoxes to ease stress, improve sleep and reclaim focus in an always-on culture


From phone-free habits to weekend breaks, residents are embracing digital detoxes to ease stress, improve sleep and reclaim focus in an always-on culture.


Divorcing devices: how digital detox helps Hongkongers ‘carve out moments’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From phone-free habits to weekend breaks, residents are embracing digital detoxes to ease stress, improve sleep and reclaim focus in an always-on culture

From phone-free habits to weekend breaks, residents are embracing digital detoxes to ease stress, improve sleep and reclaim focus in an always-on culture