Changing Phone Habits Isn’t a Willpower Problem. It’s a Confidence Problem.

Offline.now founder Eli Singer says most New Year’s “digital detoxes” implode because the plan is too big for people’s confidence and too small on actual support.

Dec 16, 2025

2 min

Eli Singer

Every January, millions of people swear they’ll “spend less time on my phone.” By February, they’re right back where they started, only now they feel worse about themselves.


Eli Singer, founder and CEO of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance, thinks we’re telling the wrong story.


“Most people don’t need another productivity hack or a harsher version of ‘just put your phone down,’” Singer says. “They need one tiny experience that proves, ‘I can actually change this.’ That’s confidence. Without it, willpower doesn’t stand a chance.”


Drawing on early data from Offline.now’s self-assessment tool, Singer sees a pattern: people are highly motivated to change, but don’t believe they can stick to anything. His framework sorts users into four Types — Overwhelmed, Ready, Stuck and Unconcerned — based on motivation and confidence. Each Type gets different starting moves, all designed to be done in under 20 minutes.


“Telling an overwhelmed parent or burned-out executive to do a 30-day social media fast is like asking someone who’s never run to start with a marathon,” he says. “We focus on micro-wins — one phone-free dinner, ten minutes of swapping doomscrolling for something you actually enjoy — because that’s what rebuilds trust in yourself.”


Singer is a coach, not a therapist, but Offline.now’s Digital Wellness Directory connects people with licensed therapists, social workers, coaches and dietitians when deeper clinical support is needed. He positions Offline.now as the “front door” for people who know their relationship with screens isn’t working, but don’t know where to start.


Why now

January is peak “resolution season” and peak disappointment season. Singer can speak to why traditional “digital detox” narratives don’t work, how confidence and micro-steps change the story, and what a realistic New Year phone reset looks like for real people with jobs, kids and ADHD.


Featured Expert

  • Eli Singer – Founder of Offline.now and author of Offline.now: A Practical Guide to Healthy Digital Balance. Singer can speak to the platform’s behavioral data on digital overwhelm, the confidence gap, the Offline.now Matrix, and how 20-minute micro-steps outperform all-or-nothing digital detoxes in the real world.


Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.




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