The Digital Detoxery

A speculative store featuring imaginary products that help protect your mental health in the age of social media

Let’s talk about your relationship with social media. If you have ever felt its negative impact, you are not alone. Many young women share this struggle. That’s why I designed a pop-up installation to create a space for open dialogue about social media and mental health.
Strijp-S
Care
This project is part of
4TU Design United Dialogues 4: Health & Wellbeing
B
Natlab
Kastanjelaan 500
5616 LZ

Entrance fee

By

Noortje van Velzen

Hosted by

Design United
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Opening hours

09:30
-
12:30
Free Wifi Free wifi available
Toilets Toilets available
Wheelchair Friendly Fully wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair Friendly Toilet Wheelchair friendly toilet available

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What's the issue?

I am deeply concerned about the growing power of Big Tech companies that harvest social media data to sell to advertisers. Social media is intentionally designed to be addictive. The longer you scroll, the more profit they make. However, the mental cost of this profit driven system is becoming increasingly clear.

Young women, in particular, face social anxiety, negative self-comparison, depression, and distorted views of reality. Seeing those around me struggle, often in silence, I set out to investigate this impact and to create a space where people can share their stories about their relationship with social media.

What's the design?

The Digital Detoxery is a pop-up installation that creates space for open dialogue about social media and mental health. It features five artefacts I created, each reflecting a different aspect of young women’s struggles with social media.

Through interviews and workshops with young women, I explored the elements they struggle with most. I designed artefacts that would give these often invisible experiences with social media a tangible and immersive form.

- Overwhelmed by constant notifications? Try the Physical Notification Service.
- Struggling with online comparison? Hide likes with the Blocking Screen Protector.
- Worried about falling into toxic rabbit holes? Chat with the Therapeutic Chatbot.
- Finding it hard to focus? Visit the Attention Span Clinic.
- Unaware of how your data is tracked and sold to third parties? Gain clarity with the Big Tech Transparency Glasses.

These artefacts imagine a dystopian future where social media remains dangerously addictive. If politics fail to intervene, we are forced to design our own digital detox tools. Through absurdism and extreme, trend based scenarios, I aim to shock visitors into reflection.

What's next?

With this project, I want to raise awareness about the impact of social media on our mental health. The exhibition should invite you to reflect on your own relationship with these platforms, and to consider what we, as a society, must do to keep them from shaping a dystopian future.

Join me at Dutch Design Week in the Klokgebouw to share your thoughts and be part of the conversation on how we should face this challenge together!

And ask yourself: How much of our mental wellbeing are we willing to sacrifice for Big Tech’s profit? More importantly, where do YOU draw the line?

Digtal Detoxery as pop-up installation
Digtal Detoxery as pop-up installation
Social Design Talent Award 2025
The installation as Conversation Starter
The installation as Conversation Starter
Social Design Talent Award 2025
Conversations with Visitors
Conversations with Visitors
Social Design Talent Award 2025
The Digital Detoxery
The Digital Detoxery
Social Design Talent Award 2025

Colofon

Industrial Design Graduate Alumni of Eindhoven University of Technology
Noortje van Velzen