About
Digital Detox Collective exists to help people take back time, focus, and presence from compulsive phone use— through practical habit design and real human community.
Our mission is simple: help people build a relationship with technology that supports their values—not one where technology quietly replaces sleep, creativity, relationships, and deep focus.
Many of us don’t have a “discipline problem.” We have an environment problem: our devices are designed to capture attention and keep it.
So we don’t rely on motivation. We change the environment and build habits that can survive busy weeks.
Digital Detox Collective began with a simple observation: lots of smart, motivated people were trying to “cut back” alone—and bouncing between strict rules and relapse.
One of DDC’s founders, Summer, started noticing her phone was becoming less and less rewarding. Phones (and early social media) used to feel simpler: feeds ended, and most posts were from people she actually knew. Then infinite scroll arrived—and she could scroll for an hour, feel worse afterward, and barely remember anything she’d seen.
She tried cutting back by deleting apps, but the habit just hopped to the next endless feed—Instagram → Reddit → YouTube → the news—anything with a bottomless supply. Over time, it started to feel like burnout: less reward, more compulsion.
That’s when it clicked: this wasn’t a discipline problem—it was an environment designed for engagement. The design turns attention into “emotional gambling,” where you keep scrolling for the next hit and walk away drained.
The first change that truly helped was simple: she only picked up her phone when a call or text notification arrived (after disabling all other notifications). With everything else silenced, the benefits showed up immediately—more presence, more vivid perception, easier chores and hobbies, more music appreciation, and more play and connection.
Relapse still happened. Quitting isn’t linear. The win is noticing it quickly, resetting without shame, and returning to what matters.
DDC exists to replace that cycle with a system: baseline → reset → community → maintenance.
These values show up in every circle, reset, and check‑in.
If you slip, we don’t judge you. We troubleshoot what happened and reset—because shame is gasoline for compulsive habits.
We aim for “better,” not “pure.” A realistic system beats an intense plan you can’t sustain.
We borrow from behavior change, habit science, and community support—then we translate it into practical steps that feel human.
The goal isn’t simply fewer hours on a screen. It’s more of what you actually want: sleep, focus, relationships, creativity, purpose.
Digital Detox Collective was co‑founded by Summer, whose own compulsive phone use (and the “delete one app, replace it with another” loop) became the first Reset experiments—and Andrew, a serial entrepreneur and technical leader behind SAMstream.ai, who brings product and systems thinking to make change practical, repeatable, and achievable.
Summer grew up thinking a phone was a simple tool. Then infinite feeds showed up—and she could feel the shift: she’d scroll, feel worse after, and barely remember a single thing she’d seen. It started to feel like emotional gambling.
She tried the usual fixes (delete Instagram → end up on Reddit → delete Reddit → end up on YouTube/news rabbit holes). The pull didn’t leave, because the pattern stayed. So she ran a different experiment: only pick up the phone when there’s a notification—and remove everything except calls and texts. The benefits showed up immediately, and DDC grew from there.
Summer’s north star: not perfection, but presence, memory, creativity, and a life you actually remember.
Andrew is a CTO and co‑founder at SAMstream.ai, where he builds AI‑powered systems to streamline government contracting. Working closely with modern ML models (and the incentives that shape them) gives him an inside view into how “helpful” personalization can quietly turn into persuasion—especially when a product is optimized for clicks, time‑on‑app, and constant return visits.
At DDC, he brings that technical clarity to the problem of compulsive phone use: explaining how addictive product loops actually work (recommendation engines, variable rewards, notifications, frictionless feeds), and helping translate that understanding into practical counter‑design in your real life.
The aim is simple: educate people on the mechanics, then build habits and environments that protect attention.
Start the Reset and rebuild your phone habits with people. Circles open after you complete the Reset.
Start with a quick checkup—or start the Reset and do it with people.