Digital detox retreats function as productivity life hacks, not true escapes

Evidence

If doing nothing requires space and time away from the unforgiving landscape of productivity, we might be tempted to conclude that the answer is to turn our backs to the world, temporarily or for good. But this response would be shortsighted. All too often, things like digital detox retreats are marketed as a kind of “life hack” for increasing productivity upon our return to work. And the impulse to say goodbye to it all, permanently, doesn’t just neglect our responsibility to the world that we live in; it is largely unfeasible, and for good reason. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 129

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the target of critique: ‘doing nothing’ marketed instrumentally to boost later productivity, contrasted with what Odell actually intends.
• XREF: Feeds the reader’s central defense of Odell — she is explicitly not recommending withdrawal; this is the chapter’s thesis-territory.