We’re just a few days away from Plugged In’s very own Screen Fast 2025, which runs March 7-14, timed to the first week of Lent. We’ve mentioned it on The Plugged In Show, and (spoiler alert) we’ll be talking about it again this Thursday, right before the official fast begins.
But a few of us on the Plugged In team thought it might be a good idea to do our own screen fasts before March 7, just to see whether we could walk the walk.
And could we? Well, read on to find out.
The Pain …
Now, we’re not asking anyone to quit school or work to participate in our screen fast. You can still text your boss. You can still write that overdue term paper. And at Plugged In, where our jobs are literally all about screens, chucking them completely just wasn’t in the cards. I still watched and reviewed a movie or two. I still used my computer to type up my reviews.
But even so, the fast was harder than you might imagine.
I’ve spent a lot of my career talking about how sneaky screentime can be—and how it always feels like someone else’s problem. But when I set aside my own phone, turned out it was sneakier than I realized: It’s my problem, too.
Typically, as soon as my alarm goes off (on my phone, of course), I check headlines. Maybe do a couple of small duties for a “casual” game I play. Maybe, if I have time, do a quick French lesson via a language app I use.
During the screen fast, my alarm would go off and I … wouldn’t quite know what to do.
More time to get ready for work, right? I could use that time to comb my hair.
But the evenings proved to be the much more difficult challenge. After dinner, how could I wile away the evening without picking up a game controller? Or flipping on a little television? Or even scrolling through some Reels? Suddenly, I had a couple extra hours to kill, and it made me a little, um, cranky.
So what was I to do?
Turns out, quite a bit.
The Gain
So, if you’ve seen me on YouTube (or if you scroll to the bottom of this blog to see my staff photo), you know my hair doesn’t need a lot of attention. But what did? My spiritual life. I put those extra morning minutes straight into more time with the Bible and prayer.
I read more in the evening, too, rekindling the joy of simply sitting down with a good book and a good light. My wife and I dug out some little-used board games and started playing them. (I think I finally understand Wingspan.) I helped my wife cook dinner, too—and to my great surprise, had a blast doing it.
That’s when the beauty of the screen fast became so obvious to me. Who knew that cutting up vegetables would come with so many tangible benefits? Not only did it give my wife and I more time to talk about our respective days; not only did I get to fling around a knife for a while; but I also think the food tasted better. It had nothing to do with my chopping veggies (because no matter how you slice it, literally, broccoli is still broccoli) and everything to do with the experience of helping prepare the food.
And that, right there, is a nice analogy of what fasting from screens might do for your lives: When you fast from screens, everything tastes better. You remember how fun it is to read a good book. You discover a new game that’s way better than spending 45 minutes mindlessly scrolling through TikTok. When you talk with your spouse, or your kids, or your friends, you concentrate on the conversation. Why? Because your phone isn’t begging you to look at it, instead.
The Aftermath
By definition, a fast is about giving up something. You forego that thing—food, chocolate, caffeine, technology—for a certain amount of time. But when we think of fasting in spiritual terms, it’s always been about getting something, too: We draw closer to God.
That was the impetus of the screen fast from the get-go. Yes, we give up something, and it’s not something that’s easy to give up. There’s a reason why we spend so much time on our screens, after all; they feed us content that’s fun, interesting, relaxing and sometimes, addicting. We do more than consume it: We crave it.
Stepping away from screens is a way to make ourselves aware of those cravings, yes. But it’s also an opportunity to remind us of the beauties and joys that perhaps we’ve forgotten about.
I’m through with my screen fast now. But I’ve not returned to the same level of screen usage as I had before. My mornings are still more Bible than phone. I’m reading more books, cutting more vegetables, taking more walks.
What would you do if you cut down—or cut out—screens for a week? Want to find out? Join us, won’t you? All you need to do is go to Screen Fast 2025 to find out more.
