technology fast Fridays

Our pastor encouraged us to do something drastic last week as we continue to decide what we’d do if we had a month to live. I decided to start fasting technology on Fridays. This is a habit I wanted to start when we got settled in Anchorage anyway so I decided to start now.

Thursday night I posted on Facebook that I would not use internet, computer, Facebook, tv, email or texting for 24 hours. Here’s what I learned…

1. I had the desire to check my email 12 times on Friday. I wanted to text someone 14 times. I wanted to check Facebook 8 times. Would have like to call someone 9 times. Wished I could turn on the TV 6 times. Needed Google 7 times. The worst one, in my opinion…I clicked on my iphone 11 times during the day just to see if there were any calls or texts. Even though I was near the phone almost the whole day.
2. I hate that about myself. I’m too dependent on technology. Yes it’s become the center of our society and daily lives. And it certainly is helpful and convenient.
3. But I want God at the center of my life. I want to focus on listening, prayer, being fully present with others, serving others, finding needs in my community that some of us can meet, and loving my family and friends. This desire of mine gets seriously distorted when I put technology at the center of my life. I can’t even see the needs in my community because I’m obsessed with my stupid iPhone (gasp!). 
4. On Friday I was reminded how often my email holds me hostage. I could get things done that I wanted to get done instead of letting emails determine my agenda for the day. 
5. I asked my husband to text someone for me only 4 times during the day. My friend Matt said texting-by-proxy still counts. Hmm…
6. My desired outcome was realized. I need to remind myself once a week that I don’t need this stuff. Then use it effectively and balanced the rest of the week. 

If you sense your online/hyper-connected life is getting off-balanced, I encourage you to try living without it for a day. See what happens. My desire to connect had already diminished on Saturday. I even accidentally left my phone at home last night and normally would have really wished I had it. 

But who cares? 

We are not the center of the world. 

God is.