Digital Retreat as Civic Repair

Unlimited, always‑on information access is not merely an individual burden; it is a collective externality that erodes attention, solidarity, and deliberative capacity. Framing and promoting intentional, institution‑level 'digital retreat' (school and workplace offline periods, municipal 'push‑silence' norms, public‑time windows) can be a policy and cultural response to restore mental health and civic calm. — If adopted as policy or norm, this idea would reframe debates about platform regulation and youth mental health from purely technology‑centric fixes toward public‑institutions and cultural practices that protect shared attention.