Del Oro softball Team Coach traded their player’s cell phones for flip phones that could be used to contact parents when they were not at home. It was a 30-day digital detox. The idea was simple: All girls in the Del Oro softball program will turned in their smartphones on Jan. 31 during the program’s mental health awareness night to go on a detox from all social media.

On January 29. 2025, CBS reporter brady Halbleib wrote,

• “The Del Oro High School girls’ softball team is taking on a challenge most teens would find impossible: giving up their smartphones for an entire month. In an effort to raise awareness about social media’s impact on mental health, the players are swapping their devices for flip phones. The varsity softball team received their flip phones, technology they thought had long been forgotten. 

“It’s scary to think you’re not going to have a phone, technology, or social media for 30 days,” said senior player Delaney Osborne. 

For the next month, these old-school devices will be their only connection with no apps, no scrolling, and no distractions. 

“I feel like we’ve kind of lost our teenage adolescence to the cyberworld. I just want to bring them back and I just want everyone to look up,” Christiansen said. 

“While the players experienced some withdrawal symptoms, such as irritability and anxiety, they also reported feeling more present and engaged with their surroundings. The experience highlighted the importance of self-regulation skills and the potential benefits of a digital detox.”

Addy and Jennifer took the challenge even further. With help from the Amen Clinic in Walnut Creek, she underwent a brain scan before and after the detox to see how a break from digital life might impact a teenager’s brain.

Addy’s post-detox scan showed increased blood flow to parts of the brain tied to decision-making and impulse control. Her test scores and retention also improved. But doctors noticed something else: signs of withdrawal similar to what might be seen in someone coming off a drug.

UC Davis professor Drew Cingel, who studies the effects of media on youth, said the results aren’t surprising.

“It does not terribly surprise me that this brain scan on this one adolescent female shows changes in the brain as a function of stopping usage for a month,” Cingel said.

During a post-detox discussion with the team, reactions were mixed. Some players said they felt “freer” and more connected to people around them. Others admitted feeling irritable, stressed, or anxious without their phones.

“They haven’t learned how to self-regulate,” Cingel explained. “It’s really easy when you’re bored or anxious. You pick up your cell phone and see what’s happening. And when that’s taken away, if you haven’t developed self-regulation, you’re kind of adrift.”

While doctors at the Amen Clinic noted this was just an experiment and not a controlled study, they found the results intriguing.

Meanwhile, the Del Oro girls kept winning. They advanced all the way to the Sac-Joaquin championship game, making many wonder whether their new mindset played a role.”

What does this mean to us? This summer would be a perfect time to do an experiment.

Challenge your students to do a phone detox the month before school starts.

Encourage them to pursue outside activities, the arts, or hobbies that are not device related.

Prepare them that they might feel anxious at first, but by distracting themselves with a fun activity will help calm the nerves related to cutting off use of their smartphone.

They may just find that school tasks become easier and their retention improves.

Then, they can decide if the smart phones are that worth the negative impact on their brains.