Untethering: Finding Your Way Through the Noise

As if life weren’t already full — with work, family, emotions, and everything in between — we’re now navigating the added layers of notifications, news cycles, algorithmic rabbit holes, and an always-on culture that never quite lets us rest.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, distracted, or just unsure where your own thoughts end and the internet’s begin… you're not alone.

The writer Andrew Solomon once described it as “distraction sickness” — and it feels about right. A kind of mental buzzing. A low-level static that makes it hard to focus, hard to feel, hard to know what matters.

But the answer doesn’t have to be throwing your phone into a lake (though, we’ve thought about it). It might be as simple as choosing slowness, silence, or disconnection — even for a moment. A walk without a podcast. A dinner without a scroll. A morning where you reach for a notebook instead of your inbox.

This pathway is here to help you gently untangle your relationship with technology — not to abandon it entirely, but to reimagine how it fits into your life, and how it might serve rather than steal your attention.

There are ways to feel more human again. To pause. To reconnect with what’s real. And to remember: the point was never just to be online — it was to feel alive.

Because even in a hyper-connected world, it’s easy to feel lost.

Check out our featured places to untether

Here’s a rundown of the places we’ve featured on If Lost, Start Here x so far. More to come. More places to disconnect, to unwind, to just be, away from it all.
(Did we miss something? You can contribute your ideas here!)

Untethering Journal

Where to next?

Create your plan for better digital well-being with our Well-being Prescriptions.