When a St. John's College student described a six-day phone fast as revelatory—"presence with nearby people became necessary"—they echoed a thirty-year-old prescription: reframe digital detox from "anti-tech" to "pro-community" by filling screen-free space with genuine presence. Melissa Kirsch made the same argument in the New York Times Morning newsletter, opening with a 1996 artifact ("netaholism," … Continue reading The Presence Assumption: Digital Wellness and the Community It Presupposes