There Is No "Phone Free for 12 Years in Bali Man"
MsBoyink came across this story while scrolling her social feeds.
Supposedly, a man in Bali went smartphone-free for 12 years and was interviewed by cognitive scientists, producing “shocking results.”
A quick web search turns up the story only on social platforms, including Instagram and TikTok.
The videos assert the following:
A cognitive scientist who interviewed him said the shocking part wasn’t calmness — it was the return of deep-time perception, a mental state modern brains almost never access. “People think phones steal attention,” she said. “They steal the sense of continuity.” He regained the ability to feel days, seasons, and decisions as one coherent timeline — something psychologists now see collapsing in young adults.
I’ll point out the obvious issues first. There is no author listed for this writing. The man in Bali is not named. The so-called “cognitive scientist” is quoted but not identified.
According to Wikipedia, “deep-time perception” is defined as:
The concept of geological time that spans billions of years, far beyond the scale of human experience. It provides the temporal framework for understanding the formation and evolution of Earth, the development of life, and the slow-moving processes that shape planetary change.
In other words, this is not something you once had and are going to “get back” simply by ditching your smartphone.
There is also no source or attribution for the psychologists referenced.
The caption continues:
His memory transformed. Without constant digital interruption, his brain restored the spatiotemporal loop — the circuit that binds memory to place. He could recall conversations from years ago with exact locations, smells, and angles of light. Most adults have fragmented recall because the phone breaks the loop every few minutes, making life feel disconnected.
To verify a transformation in this man’s memory there would have had to be baseline measurements taken before he gave up his smartphone.
And once again, there is no source for the claim that most adults have fragmented recall due to phone use.
The story goes on:
He also regained boredom tolerance. Silence didn’t scare him. He could sit with stillness long enough for insight and clarity to rise. Psychologists fear this skill is disappearing.
Same basic problems. Without a baseline measurement taken before a 12-year gap in phone use, there is no way to know what his boredom tolerance was to begin with. And which psychologists?
Finally, we get this:
And the last part was the most powerful. His nervous system relearned nuance. He didn’t respond faster. He responded right. He didn’t become calmer. He got his original brain back.
What does it mean to “respond right”? Respond to what? How is a “right response” measured? What, exactly, is an “original brain,” and how would anyone determine that?
Twelve years of lived experience — with or without a smartphone — is going to change a person. There is no going back.
What Smartphones and Short-Form Video Have Cost Us
I’m going on nine years of phone-free living. I haven’t had cognitive scientists or psychologists scrambling to test my brain. I also didn’t do any baseline testing nine years ago.
But I can clearly see one thing we are collectively losing through smartphones and social media.
Critical thinking.
It took only a few minutes to verify that this entire Bali-man story was fabricated. Beyond the lack of attribution and sourcing, it exists only on social media. There are no blog posts, no news articles, no academic references, no Reddit threads.
The scariest thing about these posts are the comment sections. Hundreds of responses and not one that I saw questioning the veracity of the claims.
Make no mistake: I believe smartphones are an evil in today’s world, more necessary for some than others. I support thoughtful efforts to minimize their impact on mental well-being.
But let’s build those efforts on truth — not pseudoscience wrapped around a tall tale with the intent to sell another internet personal improvement course.
More on Phone-Free Living:
- Living Without a Smartphone in 2025: Increase Your Margins
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