Feeling Distracted? Pastor Advises Taking a ‘Digital Fast’
By Movieguide® Contributor
A Nashville pastor is encouraging people to do a “digital fast” to be more present in their own lives.
Dr. Darren Whitehead just released a new book, titled “The Digital Fast: 40 Ways to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most.”
“Embark on a transformative journey and reclaim your life from the digital chaos with The Digital Fast,” a synopsis of the book reads. “In this compelling guide, you’ll disconnect from screens, social media, and notifications for 40 days and rediscover the sacred art of listening to the voice of God. This book offers practical strategies, inspiring stories, and a path to spiritual renewal in our digital world.”
In an interview with Faithwire, Whitehead explained, “The reason that I wanted to do a digital fast is that for some of the similar ways that we use food. We generally can go to food when we are feeling anxious, when we are afraid of something, when we have some surge of feeling ashamed about something.”
“Something has happened in society in these last 15 years or so, where, instead of going to food, we’re going to phone,” he continued. “And when you feel an unpleasant feeling, when you feel anxious, when you feel afraid, when you feel ashamed — you can just unlock your phone, maybe not even consciously being aware that you’re doing this.”
Whitehead said that people get distracted by their phones and “forget the feelings…and, all of a sudden, 45 minutes goes by and you think, ‘What am I doing with my life looking at these dumb videos?’”
“What am I missing as I observe my children because I’ve got my head buried in triviality instead of these precious, childhood years that are so fleeting?” he asked.
Whitehead also said that the distraction of our phones can negatively affect our relationship with God.
“If all the discretionary moments of our lives have been chased out, then we are not able to still ourselves and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit to be paying attention to what God wants us to pay attention to,” he explained.
He added that smartphones have “an enormous impact” on young girls, as well, “decimating their self-esteem, stealing their attention, [and] stunting their social growth.”
Many studies have been done about the effect of smartphones on young people, including a recent CDC report that linked excessive screen time to poor mental health.
READ MORE: ANOTHER STUDY PROVES JUST HOW DAMAGING SCREEN TIME IS ON MENTAL HEALTH
It’s a topic social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explored in his book, “The Anxious Generation.”
“Kids always had play-based childhoods, but we gradually let that fade away because of our growing fears of kidnapping and other threats in the 1980s and 1990s,” Haidt told CNN. “What arose to fill all that time was technology. In the 1990s, we thought the internet was going to be the savior of democracy. It was going to make our children smarter. Because most of us were techno-optimists, we didn’t really raise alarms when our kids started spending four, five, six and now seven to nine hours a day on their phones and other screens.”
He continued, “The basic argument of the book is that we’ve overprotected our children in the real world and we’ve under-protected them online. And for both halves of that, you can see how we did that thinking that it was going to be OK. We were wrong on both points.”
Haidt often speaks about the importance of keeping kids off of social media and away from screens.
READ MORE: PSYCHOLOGIST URGES PARENTS TO ‘ACT TOGETHER’ TO KEEP KIDS OFF SMARTPHONES
