1 . Digital technologies are taking up too much of our time and attention. Many of us will spend a significant part of our lives staring at screens, missing out on satisfying relationships and feeling more emotional pain. For many years, we’ve been taught that the solution to this potential harm is some form of digital detox (脱瘾), which mainly shows us what not to do after our digital addiction.     1     Try the following three steps to achieve balance in your and your family’s digital life:

Identify the times and situations when being on screens is making your life worse. It could be when you are streaming a TV series right before bed, feeling depressed afterward and losing hours of sleep. Or you could be getting stuck on your device at the dinner table and end up getting distracted.     2     Identify your top two or three problem situations.

Once you identify the pain points, for example, scrolling (滚动浏览) on TikTok for hours keeps you from sleeping and makes you feel depressed afterward), ask yourself: What is screen time replacing and what goals is it serving? In other words, what are you actually hungry for? You might be endlessly scrolling because you want to feel uplifted at the end of the day. Write down the things you really want.

    4     It’s crucial to pick something that consistently makes you feel good. For example, if your goal is social connection, make plans for a nice meal with a friend or take that weekly meeting in person rather than via Zoom. If your goal is inspiration, schedule time for oil painting, reading historical fiction or whatever it is that uplifts you.     5     And at last, you will become empowered, healthy and wise digital citizens.