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Using Screen Fasts to Bring Joy Back Into Our Lives
Last week I received a text from my 14-year-old daughter at school, requesting more screen time. I ignored her request because she is allotted a reasonable amount of time on her apps, so most likely it was time for her to take a break anyway. Additionally, she was at school and had been since 7:30 am, so I was concerned with how she could have already used up her time by 11:00 am.
She was clearly talking about it among her friends because a few minutes later, my phone started vibrating and beeping with more texts. She had sent me photos of her friends’ average daily screen usage to show me how unreasonable her two hours a day limit was. The photos blared back at me the following daily usage times from her friends:
6 hours, 5 minutes
7 hours, 23 minutes
5 hours, 22 minutes
6 hours, 59 minutes
These averages were during a normal school week. They did not include time on T.V. or computers, only average screen times on their phone.
We know screen usage is on the rise, and while this was a small sample of friends, it felt more personal seeing the evidence that these kids, who I’ve known since elementary school, are spending the majority of their day on their phones. And it’s not just kids. Although my average…
