Thirty-six percent of Germans have made a resolution to take a digital break for a few days in the coming year, with an average of six days. This is shown by a survey published by the IT industry association Bitkom on Monday.
This is slightly behind the previous year’s trend, as in 2024, 41 percent of Germans wanted to take a digital break for an average of a week. In comparison, at the end of 2021, only nine percent of Germans had planned a digital break for the new year.
The “digital detox” involves deliberately giving up the use of individual or all digital media, applications, or devices for a certain period of time to spend more time offline. Five percent of those surveyed plan to take a digital pause for just one day, 12 percent for several days of digital fasting, and 12 percent for a week of digital detox, while seven percent plan to take a break for more than a week.
Whether as a New Year’s resolution or not, in total, 41 percent of Germans have already taken a conscious break from digital media or devices at some point. Fourteen percent have done a one-day digital fast, six percent have managed several days of digital fasting, and only six percent have successfully abstained from all digital devices and applications for a week or more. Fifteen percent have attempted a digital break but gave up before finishing.
Only a few have completely shut down: just three percent of those who have already taken a digital break have abstained from all digital devices and applications. The majority, however, have only given up on specific devices like smartphones or game consoles (37 percent), or online shopping (37 percent).
One-third (33 percent) has already taken a break from social networks, 31 percent from gaming, 22 percent from chatting via messenger or SMS, 11 percent from emails, and seven percent from streaming services. Two percent of Germans, however, claim not to use digital devices and applications at all – this only applies to the age group of 65 and older.
The Bitkom Research survey interviewed 1,004 people in Germany, aged 16 and above, by phone from the 34th to the 46th calendar week of 2024.