Special to The B.C. Catholic

When kids are connected to their screens, they are disconnected from the world. Can you imagine your child or teen spending all their time getting lost in books all over again?

Nostalgia.

If I had a time machine, I wouldn’t fast forward, but rewind back to a time when phones were not “smart” and humans relied more on their own creativity and critical thinking and exercised greater human and social engagement in their lives.

Every day in our most intimate spaces, at the dinner table, in the car, in our homes, a digital wall is being erected among the relationships that matter most to us – between one another, between God and us.

As a coach, educator, and passionate runner and athlete, I am surrounded by passionate people who are always setting goals for themselves. Be it the Whole30 diet cleanse, the Exodus 90 prayer fraternity, the Spartan challenge, or Run 1000 miles in 365 days. There is even an Oreo challenge!

People are eager to seek out the next challenge to indulge in and share actively on their social media. If we only applied a fraction of this passion, zeal, and self-discipline towards technology use, our lives would be more full.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both raised their kids in tech-free environments; they were low-tech parents. Steve Jobs did not let his own kids use iPads. Sound alarming? When the techno elites are setting very explicit boundaries on tech usage in their homes and personal lives, there is something telling about this. 

The stats are alarming, and frightening. Studies from the U.S. National Library of Medicine suggest children who are exposed to more than four hours of screen time a day have a significantly greater chance of developing depression as teenagers.

The digital distractions are endless. How many of us are applying greater skepticism and care in setting boundaries around technology usage, and making this a priority? We are told, “Kids are disengaged, because we are not engaging them. We are not engaging them in real face-to-face conversations.”

Their ability to focus at school, at home, and in life is compromised by digital distractions. Our children’s brains are overloaded by extraneous processing, making learning so much more inefficient due to a torrent of digital notifications they are bombarded with on a daily basis.

According to a Harvard business study, “You Can’t Multitask, So Stop Trying,” multitasking does not actually exist. Over half a century of cognitive science studies reveal that our brains can only switch between tasks, so multitaskers end up doing less and missing more information.

You can only imagine what smartphones are doing to our mind, body and soul. You don’t need a time machine to predict the future.

This Lent, why not disconnect from your digital world and reconnect with life, with one another, with God. Unplugging from the digital world does not mean you eliminate all connections to the digital world. Even the most remote places in the base camp of Everest are connected to the online world.

To digitally unplug for the second half of Lent means you are beginning the process of defining boundaries for smarter and more purposeful technology usage in your life. What this looks like is really up to you. Imagine what you would do with just one extra hour a day. Would you spend it on taking better care of your physical body, getting those Fitbit steps in, or training for your first 5K?

Whether it is your first marathon or 10th, that extra hour a day away from the digital distractions can translate into invaluable opportunities to seek greater balance in your family, spiritual, and personal lives. An hour a day on prayer, reading Scripture, visiting our Lord in adoration alone or with your family – this would radically transform you.

Isn’t this what Lent is all about – walking with our Lord with greater detachment and freedom?

Imagine the blessings and graces you would receive. Imagine what two hours a day would do for your family, for your spouse, for your children, and for your sanity.

In 1 Cor 11:31 we read, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” This can serve as a framework for clearly identifying and creating a plan for what unplugging digitally for the remainder of Lent would look like for you.

You decide on the boundaries. As St. Thomas Aquinas so eloquently describes our road to sainthood, “Will it.”

Here are a few suggestions you may wish to use:

1.      Define core hours such as 8 to 5 p.m. where you use electronic devices, and limiting usage outside these core hours. 

2.      Utilize airplane mode, or do not disturb mode outside these core hours.

3.      Charge your phone in another room during bedtime to give yourself the sleep your body deserves.  This applies to your children too. 

4.      Delete apps on your phone that would distract until the end of Lent.  Out of sight.  Out of mind. 

5.      Limit the number of non-verbal messages you are sending, and consider calling someone over the phone.  That’s right, we used to phone people before those blue iMessage bubbles invaded our lives.

6.      Accumulate the number of hours you have been able to unplug, compute how much it cost by way of connection cost, then give the money as alms to the needy.  You can be creative with this one!  

Whenever we eliminate something from our lives our body is used to thriving on, be it caffeine, alcohol, pornography, or gossiping, we need to replace that with something else.

Take going to confession for example. Each nail that our sins drive into the cross, Jesus removes them through the sacrament of reconciliation.  We need to fill those holes with something else –  sacraments, prayer, Scripture – so we can receive grace from God in our lives.

A smoker or alcoholic who is trying to quit is more likely to be successful if they can find ways to satisfy their cravings with other healthier distractions. We too, when detoxing from unnecessary screen time in our lives need other healthier outlets to fill in those gaps.

So this Lent, why not challenge yourself with replacing screen time with more time for your faith, your family, your friends, and yourself.  Disconnect from the screens and reconnect with life.  Reconnect your soul. After all, this is what you have been given for all eternity.  Unplug and challenge yourself to be stronger, dig deeper, and walk more closely with the Lord for the remainder of Lent. You are not in this alone.

If you are interested in sharing your testimonials about this Lenten challenge, you can email skoolij@gmail.com.

Julie Wong is a Catholic educator and an educational technology leadership design master’s student.