**Headline:** Township of Serenity Springs Declares “Internet-Free Zone” to Combat “Digital Brain Rot,” Residents Report Unprecedented Peace
**Claim:** The small, rural township of Serenity Springs, Oregon (pop. 2,400), has officially banned all wireless internet and cellular data within its borders for a three-month pilot program. According to a viral Facebook post from a resident, the town council voted unanimously after a “summer of silence” where neighbors reported feeling less anxious and sleeping better during a planned 48-hour “digital detox” test last June.
**Status: [FALSE]** This is a completely fabricated story. The Township of Serenity Springs does not exist in Oregon. However, the concept is loosely based on a very real, localized effort in the small town of Green Bank, West Virginia, which is home to the Green Bank Observatory. In that area, a National Radio Quiet Zone exists to protect the observatory’s sensitive telescopes, meaning Wi-Fi, cell service, and many wireless devices are naturally restricted. Serenity Springs is a fictional exaggeration that conflates this real-world restriction with a popular modern wellness trend—the “digital detox.” There is no evidence of any town in the U.S. voting to voluntarily ban internet for mental health reasons. In actual fact, the resident who posted the story issued a retraction, admitting it was a “what if” thought experiment that got picked up by a satire site.