Appstinence Requires Social Capital

A durable movement of voluntary smartphone/A I abstention (appstinence) is inherently distributional: those who can exit the network without social penalty are wealthy or well‑connected, so mass adoption is blocked by the network costs of isolation. Attempts to scale abstention therefore need institution‑level substitutes (default‑safe platforms, workplace and school norms, or policy backstops) rather than pure personal virtue. — This reframes debates about 'digital detox' from moralizing individual choices to structural policy: if harm is systemic, remedies must change collective infrastructure and social norms, not simply exhortation.