What a great experiment you embarked on!
Am afraid you are correct, for an artist to survive the length of time, these days social media is a must. I see this in the electronic music industry as well. Newcomers are propelled to stardome* because they know and play the TikTok and Snapchat game. Older generation stars, loose their stardome* because they are not playing the social media game, or let other handle their own feeds (how good such companies are handling the artists social media channels, it still feels its not the artist him/herself and I think this has less positive effects to when the artist is managing his/her own feeds).
That said, I do know myself it is not easy to not get triggered when an SMS, or WhatsApp, or whatever is received. Or when a notification is presented on a new vote, or a new incoming comment. I must say, I believe am healed. Didnt go cold turkey as you going now, but took me years to keep my dopamine production and release under control. Maybe it took me a full decade. But by now, well, by the last decade or so, I have no issue hearing ring and bleebs. I dont react. I dont feel any urge to take out my phone, or go and seek for that device when not on my body to see what tried to get my attention. When uyou ask my friends, and even colleagues: They dont like my behaviour though. They always say: You are so hard to reach. Thats the side effect of all of this :)
ps Good luck with your month of reducing your dopamine levels to sub-zero levels. Though am wondering how your wife is handling this?! ;)
*With 'stardome' I dont mean star dome in the literall sense, but more popularity.