Should you ditch your phone for lent? Here’s what happened when i tried.
My phone is my closest companion.
I mean really. My iPhone escorts me to the bathroom. She sits with me through meetings. Occasionally she plays along with my child and I. Heck, she even watches me while I sleep!
Not to mention the amount of time I spend engaging with my phone is exponentially higher than the time I spend with my actual life partner, my husband.
And to be honest, it’s really easy not to ever think about it – mostly because the large majority of people I interact with in my daily life are in the same boat.
But do you ever stop and think about what living like this has that done to us as people?
How has my phone affected my happiness, my relationships? My career?
I’ve decided it’s time to find out.
Lent and I – A quick historical recap
I was born on Easter Sunday. 🐣 I like to pretend like this makes me special somehow. (I mean it does, right?) So the concept of Easter itself, Jesus rising up from the dead, conquering death – I’ve always been very gung-ho about all of this.
But Lent, Ash Wednesday… these were thing we never “did”. Growing up I understood Lent to be some sort of Catholic religious thing that I didn’t need to understand because it didn’t apply to me.
By college, I understood Lent as a time where friends casually mentioned they were going to stop drinking coffee, quit swearing, or turn off their Facebook account until after Easter.
But post-Easter? It was business as usual, with no remarkable life changes. Needless to say, I’ve never been impressed.
This year is a little different. Now I understand Lent isn’t something we “have” to do or a practice required to be a good Christian. It’s simply a really cool, optional practice – a way to reflect and to prepare our hearts and minds for everything we celebrate during Easter itself.
So it truly feels like there is no better time to take what has become one of the most important things in my life, and significantly lessen it’s importance.
The problem with cell phone Dependency
Okay so no, I’m not dropping my phone completely. I’m not getting a flip phone, or switching to landlines and letter writing for daily communication. Because duh- I am still a living, breathing, first world country human being. And who uses social media for work on a daily basis.
But I DO want to stop picking up this stupid piece of metal and glass and taking it everywhere I go like it’s a part of my body. I don’t want it to be staring me in the face during every important moment of my life.
It’s really important to use my free time to be productive and creative, instead of using it to scroll through Justin Bieber’s Instagram feed looking for clues about his relationship with Selena.
I want to have in depth conversations with my husband and my friends where we aren’t distracted every few minutes by what someone else is doing 3 timezones away.
It’s time to put the phone down, put it on silent, keep it in my bag for emergencies only, and get back to living my life.
It starts today. And if you see me with my face in my phone in the next few weeks , give me a gentle yet stern reminder to CUT IT OUT. I’ll report back after Easter Sunday to let y’all know how it went.
Should you ditch your phone for lent?
Most of us need our phone for specific times in our day – Maybe so our boss can contact us at work, or for locating our kids at school pickup. There’s definitely nothing wrong with having and using your phone in those specific situations.
But you also may find yourself (like me) doing things like scrolling social media at a stoplight, taking your phone with you on every trip to the bathroom, and checking your Instagram feed first thing when you wake up. These are the habits that are NOT healthy.
If you’re looking for something to drop for Lent, significantly decreasing your cell phone usage, putting it in a different room at night, logging out of social media or only have certain hours that you use it could be a mega life change that helps you focus on the the things that matter most.
Now, tell me about it…
Do you have any specific rules in your home, workplace or friend group about when, where or how often you use your phone? Let me know in the comments!
Peace and hair grease,
Abby