Unplugged

I grew up in a TV-free home, so when my sisters and I wanted to watch a movie it took an almost-comical level of planning. First, we’d borrow a big, blocky TV from the owner of the local Christian bookstore, who was a member of our church and sold TVs on the side. Then, we’d sign out a VCR from the public library and tote it home in a large, soft-sided suitcase. Finally, we’d rent a video from the corner store. And just like that – movie night!

Today, nearly every limit on how we access entertainment has vanished and our attention itself is a commodity that companies use to make a profit. Every time we turn our faces toward a screen, a transaction occurs in this new “Attention Economy.” What has been gained, and by whom? What has been lost? Can anyone show us the receipts?

To help answer those questions, I invited Christian Courier readers to participate in an experiment by abstaining from one aspect of technology for a length of time of their choosing. Four readers took me up on the challenge and answered a few follow-up questions. What, I asked, does Christian faith have to do with our engagement with technology and where we put our attention? In the words of Karen Wilk, who responded in the form of a poem, “Yes, okay, we need to know / to lament, respond, but – / what if / we let go?”

The world carried on

“Upon starting the challenge,” Dan DeBruyne said, “I felt a degree of anxiety at not being accessible. That I was letting people down for not responding to the mountain of texts I assumed I was getting.” DeBruyne, a married father of two young girls, works in a hospital as a physiotherapist in St. Catharines, Ontario and went phone-free for one day. “But at the end of the day there were a handful of texts, only one or two of which really required a response. It was an exercise in humility. To think that I am required to be reachable 16-18 hours a day has an air of pride about it.”

Ruth Ann Schuringa decided to fast from social media for 48 hours. She described feeling nervous and conflicted before beginning – “not wanting to but knowing I must. I really love social media,” she added. As a Worship Director at her church, Schuringa said she couldn’t be off her phone completely, especially in the busy week before Easter (which is when CC sent out the challenge). She reported that she “read the CC with breakfast on Day 1 instead of scrolling. Got a lot done. Missed it? Yes, but didn’t miss the political angst and divisiveness in some posts, and the way that distracted me and made me angry/frustrated/sad.”

On a small island off the West Coast, Jordan Noble, who works remotely for the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities, decided to go phone-free for one weekend. “It’s the bad stuff that’s been harder to kick,” he wrote. “My phone has slowly become my life partner for scrolling old X-Factor auditions with my morning coffee. My body clock has synced with the updates of the discount grocery app I use to buy cheap steaks. I play New York Times mini-games in the bathroom when I (occasionally) hide from my three toddlers. The most immediate concern about putting my phone away for three days is what I will do instead.”

Quiet moments

As part of the experiment, participants paid attention to whether their daily activities and mood changed. In Edmonton, Wilk wrote that “I went outside instead. / Meandered where the footpath led, / Noticed pussy willows, and shrubs I never knew / Little green sprouts that were pushing through.”

DeBruyne said that he was “pleased at how I could feel myself relaxing and the urgency I felt subside the longer I went without” his phone. “The world kept revolving without me. I didn’t need to be constantly accessible; people would be answered in good time. The quiet moments of daydreaming, fully engaged playing with my daughters and making more eye contact during conversations were all welcome side effects of my phone-free day.”

Schuringa said that on day two, she surprised herself by sometimes forgetting about her phone. “Not even tempted,” she wrote. “It seemed like a gift to not look at it and be distracted by endless feeds. Relief, even.”

Noble discovered a multitude of possibilities for his newly freed-up time. “After work, I could go beachcombing with the kids or have some friends come over for a visit,” he said. “When I’m hiding from the kids, I can do a Sudoku puzzle now rather than catching up with my friend Tony Soprano. After bedtime, I can do the dishes – right away, even! I can sit quietly or read without distraction. I could watch TV on an actual TV without it being in my hand.”

What else did participants notice? “The digital detox did help me realize how frequently I look to my phone to fill silence,” DeBruyne said. “How frequently I try to drown out any ´still small voices’ with newsfeeds, friends’ photos or memes. It also made me realize how obsessed I can be with efficiency – utilising every ounce of time – to listen to a book or podcast or send an email or update a friend. God’s second most frequent command in the Bible is to rest, and that includes our minds, our psyche, not just our bodies and not just on Sundays.”

In a 2019 book called How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell also reflects on the overstimulation of our brains. “The villain is not the Internet,” she says. “It is the invasive logic of commercial social media and its financial incentive to keep us in a profitable state of anxiety, envy and distraction.”

New patterns

I still live in a TV-free home, but only in the most literal sense: no screens mounted on any walls and no cable hook-ups. But the world has changed dramatically since I was a kid. On smaller screens throughout our house, movies without end are available at all times. Now the real challenge is not access but addiction.

The experiment triggered a few thoughts about longer-term changes from our readers. “I have started blocking all my phone apps from 4:30-7:30, the time I arrive home, to be with my family,” DeBruyne said. “It’s not a total digital detox but I think it’s a step in the right direction. I hope to make a digital sabbath for the family as well. Maybe we can spend some time resting, daydreaming and connecting without cords.”

“The deeper question is, who am I without my phone?” Noble asked. “Definitely more irritable at first, not as numbed out (three kids under six will do that). More open to enjoying my surroundings. I certainly see less and hear less about the world. But also [see] more clearly about my wife, my children, and maybe even myself. I read and write better when not watching videos every five minutes. Paper pages turn quicker. Excited thoughts slow down. My inner voice gets a little louder. Maybe soon the Lord will say something. Maybe he already is. Maybe soon I will listen.”