Media Fast
Fasting has always been a formative and devotional discipline for God's people. In Scripture, refraining from food was a way to express grief, exercise control over the body, express dependance upon God, and draw closer to him in prayer. But there was another benefit to fasting in the ancient world that modern believers easily miss—time. Before refrigeration, drive-thrus, and DoorDash, food preparation was an enormously time consuming activity. Therefore, when a household or community fasted from meals it opened up hours each day for communion with God that was normally used for making meals. Today, we don't spend endless hours kneading bread or tending the hearth. We spend them in front of our screens.
A traditional fast from food is still a valuable discipline, but in our noisy age of constant connection and digital over-stimulation a media fast may be especially relevant. There are two obvious benefits. First, the average person spends seven hours per day on a screen. Eliminating just our voluntary screen time (meaning non-work related) would free up hours every day for other spiritually beneficial activities like prayer, reading Scripture, or connecting with a real life incarnate human being. Second, our media consumption is what keeps us anxious, angry, and exhausted. Even a short media fast will disconnect us from the flow of poison and allow our souls a chance to detoxify.
Even if you cannot manage a complete multi-day media fast, consider just one hour each day to turn off your screens and shut down your phone.
Resources
The Bible Project on Fasting - Lean more about this ancient tradition
Practical Alternatives During a Media Fast - Here are some ideas on what you can do instead of being on your phone all the time
Prayer
“O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore You, a heart to delight in You, to follow and to enjoy You, for Christ’s sake.”
-St Ambrose of Milan