I’ll always remember summer 2024 as the first “real-world summer” of my adult life—the summer I fundamentally changed how I interact with my smartphone. I left social media behind in 2022, but according to my screen-time reports, I was still spending around two hours a day on my phone. Two hours. I have a full-time job and two kids. Surely I could have been doing something else with all that time!
As a mom of young children and a high school teacher, I’ve always paid attention to the research that suggests screens, smartphones, and social media negatively affect children’s development. Targeted ads, algorithms, and bottomless feeds always bothered me. This summer, the surgeon general’s warning about social media use for children gave me hope that my kids might have a better future with technology. But I wondered about myself. How was my smartphone affecting my life—in particular, my relationship with the Lord?
In June, I asked myself two simple questions: How “unsmart” could I make my smartphone? And how would less dependence on my phone change me?
Swiss Army Phone
As a teenager, I owned a tiny pink Swiss Army knife, a collection of tools including miniature tweezers and those springy little scissors I can still picture squeezing between my thumb and index finger. I wondered if I could turn my smartphone into a Swiss Army knife of sorts: a simple tool instead of the scrolling, energy draining, magnetically time-wasting force it had become.
It was hard, but I whittled away my apps. Anything with a bottomless feed that kept me scrolling had to go. I still had my laptop, so if I could convert something to a computer-only task, designated to limited times of the day, I did. Social media was already gone, but email, my internet browser (yes, no more Google on my phone), and online shopping apps including my beloved Amazon didn’t make the cut. I kept only utilitarian apps like weather forecasts, banking, and maps, which served as tools in my modern-day Swiss Army knife.
I had to untether myself from my smartphone in other ways too. I turned off all notifications except for text messages, switched my phone to grayscale, and began utilizing the “Do Not Disturb” settings. I bought a phone stand for my foyer to help me treat my smartphone more like a landline instead of an extra appendage, following me from room to room. I purchased an alarm clock for my nightstand and plugged my phone in across the room at night. No more scrolling before bed or first thing in the morning.
Back Into the Real World
It took me a few weeks to get used to my new life in the real world, especially my life without the whole internet in my pocket. But as time went on, I became more and more detached from the online world and more present in the real world.
As my screen time plummeted, my attention span lengthened, especially for spiritual practices like prayer and studying God’s Word. I enjoyed moments of actual silence. My memory improved. I was bored and had to deal with my boredom without my smartphone’s help. The persistent low-level feelings of anxiety and depression I’d felt for years diminished significantly. I slept better than I had in my entire adult life.
As my screen time plummeted, my attention span lengthened, especially for spiritual practices like prayer and studying God’s Word.
I’d felt a difference in all these areas when I quit social media, but the change was even greater now that I’d downgraded my whole smartphone. Still, the best part of my “real-world summer” was how it changed my relationship with Jesus.
Focusing on Jesus
The first and most important change I observed when I finally set myself free from my phone was the improvement in my ability to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice. Try as we may, humans can’t actually do two things at once. If my mind is constantly distracted by the screen in front of me, it isn’t focused on hearing from the Spirit, who guides me to the rich relationship God desires to have with me. Turning off the booming volume of the entire world coming through my phone has allowed me to hear more clearly the one most precious and most important voice of my Savior.
Second, I’ve become profoundly aware that God is the Creator of the world and I’m his creature. He’s all-knowing, and my knowledge should and does have limits. Leaving the house every day without the ability to Google the answer to every question that comes to mind has reminded me of my dependence on my omniscient Creator. The 17 years I spent on social media provided the illusion I could keep up with hundreds of friends if I just kept scrolling, when in fact my capacity for relationships is finite and should be reserved for the people God has placed in my “real life” in-person circles.
Third, I’ve meditated far more on 1 Thessalonians 4:11: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life” (NIV). A quiet life. A life that’s not for the followers, not for the likes, not for the dopamine shot that comes with a successful post. It’s a life where Google isn’t the omniscient being who can answer all my questions—God is. It’s rediscovering my Creator’s majesty by taking in the beauty of the real world all around me, not in the pictures I see on a screen. It’s giving the people I love, especially my husband and children, the full attention they need and deserve and allowing my mind to reset after years of smartphone-induced rewiring.
Different Standard
Romans 12 tells Christians who are in the world not to be conformed to it. In a world where smartphone dependence is the gold standard, believers have the unique opportunity to be different.
Turning off the booming volume of the entire world coming through my phone has allowed me to hear more clearly the one most precious and most important voice of my Savior.
We have the opportunity to choose less online connection in exchange for more in-person connection. We can wonder and ponder and wait as we turn our eyes away from glowing screens and toward the true light of Christ, being present with his people and doing the humble work he has for us in person each day.
I’m thankful for my journey back into the real world, back into a fuller and richer relationship with the King of the whole universe. He was there all along, even when I was too distracted to hear his voice. My only regret after my “real-world summer” is that it took me 13 years to do it.
The Gospel Coalition