Turning off notifications, deleting an app, unfollowing a few accounts: according to Université
Laval's NETendances 2025 survey, 47% of Quebecers who use social media have tried at least
one of these to cut back on their time there. The good intentions are clearly there, but they run
out of steam quickly when everything rides on willpower in the moment.
This is where TCCT wraps up its Let's Talk to Connect campaign, run in support of the mission
of Le CIEL, which raises young people's awareness of digital issues and promotes healthy,
balanced screen use. In our view, digital self-defense is mostly about preparing ahead of time,
by setting up a phone and a daily routine so that good choices take less effort in the moment.
Once the phone is in hand and the app is open, resisting takes far more effort than avoiding the
temptation in the first place. Research on self-control points the same way: the people who
reach their goals most easily have mostly learned to put themselves in situations where
temptation comes up less often, like studying at the library without their phone. On the phone
itself, the same idea comes down to adding a small obstacle just before the automatic gesture.
A team at the Max Planck Institute (Grüning et al., 2023) measured the effect of one such
obstacle, a ten-second pause before the most absorbing apps opened, followed by a choice to
continue or close. After six weeks, those apps were opened 57% less often. Without blocking
anything, the pause leaves time to ask whether opening the app was really intended, and that
simple question is often enough to change someone's mind. Over time, the reflex itself
weakens, as participants tried less and less often to open those apps.
This pause is now built into some phones. On recent Pixels, the Pause Point feature in Digital
Wellbeing adds a delay before chosen apps and suggests something else to do, such as a
breathing exercise. On other phones, free apps like ScreenZen, or the basic version of one sec,
work on the same principle.
While studying, concentration suffers most from interruptions, since every notification means
finding the thread again. A team from Duke and Georgetown universities (Fitz et al., 2019)
compared four ways of receiving notifications: in real time, once an hour, three times a day or
never. People who got them in three batches a day felt more focused, less stressed and more
productive. Those who got none at all gained nothing and grew more anxious, worried about
missing something important. It is better, then, to choose when notifications arrive than to cut
them off completely.
Phones can already handle this sorting. On iPhone, Scheduled Summary groups notifications at
set times, and on Android, a Do Not Disturb schedule during classes and study sessions works
in a similar way. Leaving the phone at the bottom of a bag while studying also cuts out plenty of
quick checks.
Outside of school, the simplest solutions often need no app at all. At meals, leaving phones
away from the table is enough. The bedroom deserves the same treatment, since most 18- to
34-year-olds check social media in bed, when they wake up and before they fall asleep, yet very
few leave their phone in another room overnight. Charging it in the living room and bringing
back a real alarm clock protects the last minutes of the evening as well as the first ones of the
day.
Cutting everything off for a few days can also be tempting. Studies on these complete breaks
show mixed results, though: screen time drops, but the urge to pick the phone back up and the
fear of missing out often rise, and the studies that measured grades or performance saw no
improvement. For productivity, cutting down on interruptions looks more promising than
switching off entirely. Targeted breaks, such as one evening a week without social media or an
app set aside during exam season, are also easier to stick with. None of these habits changes
how apps are designed to hold attention, but they do loosen the grip those apps have on daily
life.
Digital self-defense also covers personal information, and the same logic applies, since a few
choices made ahead of time protect better than constant vigilance. Default settings are not
always the most protective, and many people never change them. The Office of the Privacy
Commissioner of Canada recommends, among other things, limiting who can see one's posts,
allowing location access only while an app is in use, removing permissions an app does not
need and turning on two-step verification. These precautions are worth the effort, since posts
and location data add up and can say a lot about a routine, such as the route between home
and school.
This final article wraps up a series that first looked at algorithms, then at the intention behind
screen time, and ends with the everyday habits that help take back control. Let's share our own
tips with #TelferLetsTalk.
● Le CIEL: founded in 2019, the only Canadian organization fully dedicated to young
people's digital well-being, whose prevention workshops include one on digital
self-defense.
● Digital Wellbeing (Android), Pause Point (Pixel) and Screen Time (iPhone): official
help pages with the current steps for the tools mentioned in this article.
● Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Tips for using privacy settings: tips
for social media, mobile apps and browsers.
● Gambling: Help and Referral: free, confidential helpline for concerns about gambling,
video games or internet use, available 24/7 across Quebec at 1-800-461-0140.
● University of Ottawa, health and wellness: health and wellness services for students.
Student Wellness can be reached at 613-562-5777.
● Good2Talk: free, confidential and bilingual helpline for Ontario post-secondary students,
available 24/7 at 1-866-925-5454.